School food blogger raises £70,000
A nine-year-old blogger has raised more than 10 times her target amount for charity after a council overturned a ban on her taking photos of her school meals.
Donations to Martha Payne's fundraising website soared above £70,000 today after she was told she could resume posting photos to her NeverSeconds blog, which reviews her meals at her school's cafeteria in Lochgilphead, Argyll.
She had set herself a target of reaching £7,000 for Mary's Meals, a charity running school feeding projects in impoverished communities around the world.
But on Thursday she posted a goodbye message saying she had been told by her headteacher that she could no longer post photos of the dinners. Martha expressed her concern that she would not be able to finish raising enough money for a kitchen for the charity.
Argyll and Bute council has since reversed its decision.
Martha's story became one of the most-talked about topics on Twitter and news sites, with visitor numbers on her blog rocketing above 5.1million.
By 10.15pm on Saturday the total stood at £70,050, with donations mounting up from all over the world, including locations such as Canada, Germany, America, New Zealand and Australia.
She posted a "big thank you" to her supporters when the figure reached £45,889, but by lunchtime it passed the £60,000 mark.
In a post on her blog she wrote: "I think you know why I don't have a picture today but I will have on Monday! Thanks to everyone that has helped to get my blog back on track. I would have missed writing it a lot and I'm looking forward to sharing my dinners and yours.
"I worried yesterday that I would never reach enough money to buy a Mary's Meal kitchen in Malawi (31 seconds!) but we have raised a total of £45,889.46 which is more than one kitchen! It could be many kitchens or one kitchen feeding many children for years. A small thank you isn't enough so here's a big THANK YOU to you all!"
