Comedian and actor Sean Hughes, who plays station master Mr Perks in the King’s Cross Theatre production of The Railway Children, was on hand to present a cheque for £335,000 to the children’s charity Railway Children, an amount which has been raised by the theatre production since its West End debut in 2010.
The cheque presentation took place at Waterloo Station on 4 June 2015 marking the charity’s 20th anniversary. Sean Hughes, who took over the role of Mr Perks in the stage adaptation of the classic tale earlier this year, presented the cheque to David Maidment, the founder of the charity, which has been fighting for street children around the world since 1995.
£1 from the price of every ticket sold since 2010 has been donated to the charity. This means the audience from one night has fed four children three meals a day for a whole year in India or given 67 children in East Africa all the equipment they need to go to school, including shoes, uniforms and books.
Terina Keene, the charity’s Chief Executive, said: “I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who took part for their dedication towards raising such an amazing amount to help some of the world’s most vulnerable children. We have been thrilled to work with the show’s producers and wonderful cast and crew, who made this fantastic achievement possible.”
Sean Hughes, who stars in The Railway Children, said: “We are so proud of the money raised, and what we and our audiences over the last five years have achieved. We hope this donation will make a valuable contribution to enable the Railway Children charity to carry on their incredible work.”
There are an estimated 100 million street children worldwide, many running away from abuse, violence and poverty. Since the charity’s launch in 1995, Railway Children has helped 205,000 street children in India, more than 54,000 in East Africa, and 204,250 in the UK through its preventative education schools programme.
For more information about Railway Children, go to https://www.railwaychildren.org.uk
For more information about the King’s Cross Theatre production of The Railway Children, go tohttp://railwaychildrenlondon.com
About Railway Children
Railway Children is a leading children’s charity fighting for vulnerable children who live alone at risk on the streets, where they suffer abuse and exploitation. In the UK, society often denies their existence, and in other countries the problem is so prevalent that it has become ‘normal’.
Children and young people run away or are forced to leave home where they suffer poverty, violence, abuse and neglect. They find themselves living on the streets because there is nowhere else to go and no one left to turn to. The problems they face on the streets are often even worse than those they endured at home. Every day we fight to change their story.
Railway Children race to reach children as soon as they arrive on the streets and intervene before an abuser can. Our pioneering work in the UK, India and East Africa enables us to get to street children before the streets get to them.
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