The power of news - 7 year old raises £60k for UNICEF Haiti appeal

UPDATE - another day and the sponsorship tops £100k ($160k)

7 year old Charlie Simpson has raised more than £61,000 for the UNICEF Haiti appeal form a 5 mile bike ride and a JustGIving page. He planned to do 7 laps (5 miles) round South Park in Fulham (South London). He originally set a target of £500 which has so far been exceeded by 12000%.

There are more than 5000 links to the story on google search, from coverage of Charlie on Sky news to MIXX and the Times online to Twitter.

Clearly a good news story which caught the attention of a couple of newsies and took off world wide. And now there is a twitter about every 5 minutes about the story, so who knows where it will stop.

Charlie said:

My name is Charlie Simpson, I want to do a Sponsored Bike Ride for Haiti because there was a big earthquake and loads of people have lost their lives. I want to make some money to buy food, water and tents for everyone in Haiti.

Visit his page at http://www.justgiving.com/CharlieSimpson-HAITI