Last time I reported from the Radio 4 Appeal I'd been recording Ben Fogle for the Campaign for National Parks.
Their broadcast goes out this Sunday and ties in with the charity's 75th anniversary. Richard Reed has been supporting the charity for over 50 years. This wonderful picture is of him in 1936 standing on the boundary stone at Beachy Head on holiday.
Richard spent many of his childhood holidays in the South Downs, the newest National Park. You can read his account, including tales of target practice at Beachy head.
Do you have any memories of family holidays spent in these wonderful National Parks? Do share them on the Radio 4 Appeal Facebook page.
Personally the photograph of our family half way up a hillside, heroically picnicking in all weathers, always make me smile.
Another charity I mentioned last time was Book Aid International. It was presented by one of the charities supporters Alan Bennett. So far Book Aid International has raised £8000 from that appeal. You can read about the camp mentioned in that appeal.
The charity also has a lovely quote from George, one of the young readers at a children's project in Kenya. He has high ambitions based on what he is learning at book club, I wonder which children's authors he has been reading?
"It really teaches me that I must work hard for my life so that when I grow up I can be one of the greatest people in the world... and I can help people who are needy. I can also be one of the greatest professors in the world."
Finally to last week's DEC appeal for East Africa.
By the very nature of these emergency appeals we never have much time to turn them around. So finding a presenter and researching and recording the appeal have to happen very quickly. Twitter played a part for the first time for me. I happened upon @andrewwander who was tweeting from Dadaab, the large camp in Kenya from which the BBC's Ben Brown had been reporting. I'm fascinated by how twitter can connect us - so I tweeted explaining that I was writing a radio appeal and would love to know more about the people in the camps. Within 10 minutes we were in contact.
Having access to that first hand experience was invaluable.
Kate Adie came to record our appeal straight from the From Our Own Correspondent studio at Bush and on Friday the appeal was broadcast on radio stations across the UK. One week on and the DEC tells me they have raised £15 million pounds at the time of writing.
Thank you as ever on behalf of all the charities that benefit from the generosity of Radio 4 listeners. Follow me on twitter @flatmansally to get news on the Radio 4 Appeals.
Sally Flatman is the Radio 4 Appeals Producer
- 'Like' the Radio 4 Appeal on Facebook to get updates
- You can listen to previous and the current appeals on the Radio 4 Appeal website where you can also donate to the current appeal using a credit, debit of CAF card.
