Matt Lucas and Natasha Kaplinsky among celebs in Camp Simcha fundraising drive

Celebrities including Matt Lucas and Nick Ferrari have contributed to an urgent 36-hour urgent fundraising appeal to raise £2million for charity Camp Simcha.

They are joined by presenter Natasha Kaplinsky, Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson and TV presenter Rob Rinder in sending messages of support to help raise emergency funds for seriously ill children and their families.

The online funding campaign, which launches on Sunday February 7th, will see over 500 ‘team leaders’ running individual fundraising pages over 36 hours. More than a quarter of the ‘team leaders’, fundraising for the charity, are present and past families supported by Camp Simcha.

The charity hopes that this emergency campaign will recover some of the income that has been lost due to the cancellation of many events due to the pandemic. These events include Camp Simcha’s biennial London and Manchester fundraising dinners, which usually raise well in excess of £2million overall.

Camp Simcha chief executive Neville Goldschneider said that with referrals continuing apace, including families with delayed diagnoses or complications from Covid-19, the charity needs these funds more than ever.

“In the last few weeks alone, we have taken on a family who have a child whose cancer has spread due to a delayed diagnosis – and also a baby who was born very prematurely when his mother contracted Covid-19.

“Families are also coping with cancelled medical appointments for their children’s ongoing treatment, and emergency hospital admissions, made so much harder due to the one-parent policy. Camp Simcha’s hospital outreach has meant we can support those families with meals, essential items and activities both for the child in hospital and rest of the family at home.”

Among these familiesare Katie and Tom Morsbach, from Barnet, who turned to Camp Simcha after their daughter Leia was diagnosed with a rare and progressive mitochondrial disease at the age of six months.

Katie says: “As soon as we spoke to Camp Simcha we felt there was a lifeline for us – people who understood what we were going through and would be there to help no matter what.”

“Just having our Family Liaison Officer Mandy at the other end of the phone has been a huge support. Without Camp Simcha in our lives we would have felt really alone.”