Chronicle Wish Appeal..... We Come 7th!....

We are really proud to announce the result of the Chronicle's Wish Campaign which saw us finish 7th out of nearly 200 other organisations! A fantastic achievement as you sent us 44,784 tokens and helped us not only to a top 10 finish, but also a brilliant prize sum of �573.44!

Thank you all so much for your support!

Here's a piece from tonight's Chronicle.....

A special THANK YOU to Joan who counted and stuck every token!

 Good causes have got their hands on a share of Chronicle Wish Campaign cash, thanks to the determination of their token-collecting supporters.

This year we gave away �30,000 to not-for-profit organisations benefiting communities across Tyneside and the North East.

And to decide how big a share of the pot each group received Chronicle readers and supporters of the causes have been busily collecting tokens from our papers.

The top 10 organisations yesterday collected their cheques from Matt McKenzie, editor at NCJMedia, at a special ceremony at our Newcastle offices.

Mr McKenzie said: �Wish is one of the big events in the life of the Chronicle every year. It�s a day we can celebrate being a part of the community we serve and it�s today we have the honour of giving something back to our readers.�

For the fifth Wish Campaign 180 not-for-profit groups registered to receive a share of the cash, and a staggering 2.3m tokens were collected.

Once again Newcastle-based cancer charity Daft as a Brush, which transports cancer outpatients to and from hospital, lead to way in the tokens race with more than 186,000 collected in its name.

After collecting a cheque for �2390.17 Brian Burnie, who runs the charity, said: �It�s amazing to collect 186,000 tokens. I don�t know where they have come from. Over the last year we did more than a quarter of a million miles and fuel is our biggest expense so it�s constant fundraising for us. We just want to thank everyone.�

The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) came in second place with 167,512 tokens bagging them more than �2,144.

Amanda Simmister from the lifesaving charity said the money would help pay for much-needed helmets for its crews.

�We would just like to thank all the supporters for their kind donation and tokens,� she said. �And we would like to thank the Chronicle. We are going to put the money towards new helmets for the crews. They are �1,800 a piece so it will come in handy.

Other groups in the top 10 were: the PDSA, Out of Sight, Help Richard Live Life to the Full, Newcastle Pin Point FC, Blaydon Youth Community FC, Shak , HCPT Group 41, Cullercoats RNLI and Out of Sight.

Lynn Little from Blaydon Youth FC said: �We are absolutely over the moon. We didn�t think we would get in the top 10.�

The club plans to use the money to train up four new football coaches.

Mr McKenzie thanked all those who had taken part, either by promoting their causes or collecting tokens.

He added: �You are the ones that do all the hard work in this campaign, and without your efforts it would not be the success it is so thank you all for your efforts.�

You can see the full report and pictures at: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/north-east-good-causes-receive-10968849