Split star James McAvoy has made a sizable donation of £275,000 to help provide protective equipment for NHS staff.
The Scottish actor, 40, made the contribution to a crowdfunding campaign set up by concerned doctors who are pushing for more personal protective equipment (PPE) for medics fighting the coronavirus, revealed The Guardian.
On his Instagram page, James provided a link to the campaign in his Instagram profile biography.
He captioned the link: "Help the NHS stay safe and save lives. donate today. Thank you."
The crowdfunder page reads: "We are a group of colleagues (doctors in hospitals and GP), who have set up this initiative to source PPE for those who need it most in our fight against Coronavirus (COVID-19)."
It likens the lack of PPE to "going to war without armour and protection."
They updated the page yesterday to note: "We were initially aiming to raise £200K but have decided to raise at least £500K - this will allow us to source much more PPE to provide on a much larger / national scale."
James himself posted some video clips to his Instagram account to explain the initiative further.
He added: “Money donated today will save lives…Help us to help the government to help the NHS."
In a warning, he noted: "The situation is truly urgent and time is of the essence."
One of the campaign organisers, Dr Salaj Masand, praised McAvoy's "mind-blowing" donation and further promoted the importance of the campaign.
He told The Guardian: "This is a global catastrophic event and an extremely tough time for governments across world, no different from ours.
"There is a worldwide shortage of PPE [that’s] likely to go on for months.
“The government is doing all it can but the NHS needs all the help it can get.
"We are also competing with the commercial market who are trying to sell the same PPE for extraordinary prices."
For more information on the campaign and how to donate, see here.
As of 9am on March 29, a total of 19,522 have tested positive for COVID-19 in the UK.
Sadly, 1,228 of those hospitalised have been confirmed to have died.
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