OPINION - The Standard View: Our ‘On the Breadline’ campaign is helping Londoners through the cost of living crisis
Your generosity is still hard at work. Today the Evening Standard has handed out more than £1 million to charities supporting disadvantaged people across the capital, taking the total distributed from our On the Breadline campaign to nearly £4 million.
The key beneficiaries from this second and final tranche of funding are those disproportionately affected by the cost-of-living crisis, such as young people in care, and survivors of domestic violence, including vulnerable women from black and minority communities.
These latest grants of £132,943 each have been given to eight charities and will enable them to carry on providing vital support to Londoners with nowhere else to turn. And it will have a life-changing impact, from helping young people let down by the care system to supplying the basic necessities that so many of us take for granted. One recipient, the Hygiene Bank, provides products such as toothpaste, deodorant and period products, enabling children and adults to attend school or work in good health.
While the economy may be escaping recession, rampant inflation is making 2023 for many even harder. Thanks to donations from our readers as well as corporate partners, we are able to make a positive difference.
Let’s hear it for Bart’s
Few organisations get to celebrate their 900th birthday, which makes Bart’s Healthcare NHS Trust a notable exception. Founded in 1123 by a courtier of King Henry I, St Bartholomew’s Hospital in Farringdon has provided continuous patient care on the same site for longer than any other hospital in England.
In medieval times, it served as a vital shelter for sick and abandoned children. Today it provides healthcare to 2.5 million Londoners in five sites across the city.
Bart’s recently launched a campaign to raise £30 million to fund a new Breast Cancer Centre to improve outcomes for patients in east London, with the aim of encouraging reluctant symptomatic patients to come forward early, boosting survival rates. It is hoped that the new facility will open in 2026.
For as long as Londoners have needed it, Bart’s has been on hand to help. Few would be surprised if it was continuing to tend to the sick in another 900 years.
Kane raises the bar
Tottenham fans like to sing “he’s one of our own” in their adulation of Harry Kane but when he puts the England shirt on he is playing for all of us.
Last night, the striker surpassed Wayne Rooney by scoring a record-breaking 54th goal for his country in a 2-1 victory over Italy in Naples. Still only 29, Kane has every chance of extending that tally and thus raising the target for all future England goalscorers.
A model pro, few would begrudge the Spurs legend this title and hopefully one day a major trophy with his nation.
