Esther Rantzen has been the driving force behind ChildLine

ChildLine is a free and confidential helpline for children and young people, many who have suffered from abuse.

The London centre operates a 24-hour service, but that is under threat unless �1m can be found to keep the late service running for another year.

Ms Rantzen said ChildLine was known as the "children's emergency service".

"We deal with life and death calls, we get calls from children with nowhere else to go," she said.

'No reserves'

Ms Rantzen said that, following the generosity of the British people towards the tsunami disaster, ChildLine's flow of donations have started to dry up.

"We need the public to help us save this service. It is not that we have money left in the bank in reserve, we have spent every penny and now the charity is facing the prospect of actually cutting the service."

The charity was established in 1986 with a huge television appeal.

Since then it has counselled 1.5 million youngsters who speak to trained counsellors when they call the free advice line.

ChildLine operates out of 11 counselling centres around the UK - Belfast, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Leeds, London, Nottingham, Manchester, Swansea, Rhyl, Birmingham and Newton Abbot.

During the day the phones are manned by volunteers but staffed by paid staff workers overnight. During these hours there are fewer calls but often more serious ones.

From 2003 to 2004 ChildLine provided help to 8,920 callers between 2130 BST and 0730 BST, with 1,859 callers put in touch with emergency or social services.