Tamara Ecclestone donates £11k to save Charlie's life - how much did other celebs give?

If you’re on any form of social media, chances are that you have seen numerous celebrities post an urgent appeal for their followers to donate to a GoFundMe page called ‘Please help save Charlie’s life’.

Desperate parents Connie and Chris Yates urgently needed to raise £1.2million by the 3rd of April (tomorrow) to help their seven-month-old son, Charlie, who was born with mitochondrial depletion syndrome.

Writing in the page’s description, Connie explained: “He was born perfectly healthy but then he started to decline. We took him into hospital at 8 weeks old and none of us have been anywhere near home since.

“We have been with Charlie day in, day out and watched our poor baby get weaker and weaker, he now needs a ventilator to breathe but we have never lost hope throughout all this time!

“After endlessly researching and speaking to doctors all over the world, we found hope in a medication that may help him and a Dr. in America has accepted him in his hospital.

“It hasn’t been tried on anyone with his gene before (he’s only number 16 in the world ever reported) but it’s had success with another mitochondrial depletion syndrome called TK2 which is similar – it’s helping children to get their strength back and live longer!

“We strongly feel as his parents that Charlie should get a chance to try these medications. He literally has nothing to lose but potentially a healthier, happier life to gain.

“We are running out of precious time with our baby, he can’t have this treatment in the UK so our only hope now is to get Charlie to America – this will obviously cost us a ridiculous amount of money, money we unfortunately don’t have enough of.

“If we don’t raise enough money then we wont be able to go to America for treatment and Charlie will die! Great Ormond Street Hospital have already taken us to court to try and gain permission to turn off our baby’s ventilation which will result in Charlie’s death.

“The court date is April 3rd and it will be held in the High Court in London.

“We just CAN’T let our baby die when there is something that might help him! We won’t give up on him because he has a rare disease. He deserves a chance and he deserves a life as much as anyone else.”

Understandably, many people have been moved by Charlie’s story, including celebs, and they have all rallied together in a bid to raise the staggering amount.

As well as sharing a link to the GoFundMe page on their popular social media accounts, the stars have also donated thousands of pounds to the cause, with Tamara Ecclestone leading the way.

Under two separate donations, Tamara donated a whopping £11,000 to the cause, with Jamie Vardy’s wife, Rebekah, adding £1,000, matched by Geordie Shore star Charlotte Crosby, who also donated £1,000.

The Only Way Is Essex’s Samantha Faiers gave £500 to the cause and Ferne McCann added £250, alongside the sweet message: “I’m sending my love to Charlie [and] his parents, and I hope and pray he gets the chance to go to America for his operation.”

Tamara’s husband, Jay Rutland, gave a separate donation of £250 and Strictly Come Dancing’s Kristina Rihanoff gave £100.

Other celebs to have posted to their social media channels include Luisa Zissman, Mario Falcone and Helen Flanagan, however, any donations that they made appear to have been done so anonymously – with the highest anonymous donation being a whopping £20,000.

Thankfully, Connie and Chris’ fundraising has now exceeded the £1.2million goal, which hopefully means that Charlie will be able to make it over to America and receive the medical treatment that he so desperately needs.

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