Readers' Christmas cheer raises almost £300,000 for mental health

‘Three months later, I’d stopped the bulimia. They taught me to cope, how to structure what I eat, deal with stress, breathe if you panic. I was reserved but now I go out a lot, I’m in the sixth form and I’ve got a job.’ Jessica Bonnici is supported by the charity Mind, who are part of this year’s Guardian and Observer Christmas appeal. Photograph: Dimitris Legakis/Athena Pictures

It’s Chriiiiiiiistmas!

We’re pretty happy about that - almost as happy as this dog, publicised courtesy of the founder of appeal charity Star Wards:

@stuheritage @EmmaEHoward @patrickjbutler This is how we feel about being a Guardian Christmas charity: http://t.co/2aVgkeBkXT

— Marion Janner (@starwards) December 23, 2014

There are plenty of other reasons to help yourself to an extra glass of sherry:

You’ve almost raised £300,000

‘Twas the night before Christmas and despite no doubt facing pressures from the final work stint, to stuffing turkeys, to dealing with overexcited children, Guardian and Observer readers were being their usual generous selves. You raised more than £18,000 for the Christmas appeal in 24 hours! This is amazing: thank you. It now brings the total raised to date tantalisingly close to £300,000 - or £298,964 to be precise.

An anonymous donor gave £40,000

We’d also like to give a special mention to Mr or Ms X who called our phone line on Monday and donated £40,000!

We don’t know who it is - although I have my suspicions....

Anonymous chap. Notoriously generous and humble too.
Source: Mr.Gif

Thank you to everybody who has donated; your generosity continues to inspire us.

If you want to pass on some Christmas cheer with a donation today, you can do so here.

Christmas presents don’t get much better than this

Talking of big men in red suits, did you get anything in your stockings this morning? Two lucky members of the Guardian appeal team (that’s Emma Howard and Patrick Butler, plus honorary member Stuart Heritage) received a surprise gift: premium Star Wards merchandise from Marion Janner. What seemed for hours to be a plain china mug, reveals hidden treasures when hot water is added....

Buddy knows who’s boss.

Thank you Marion and Buddy, the Star Wards mascot!

There is plenty more appeal goodness on its way

In case you missed them in the papers, here are the appeal features from the weekend:

• Polly Toynbee on the work Mind do with young people who suffer from mental illnesses, from schizophrenia to bulimia.

• Alexandra Topping on how Samaritans are going beyond their phone line to provide their service in prisons, online and on the streets.

Look out for the final appeal feature about the Centre for Mental Health in the papers and online this weekend. A huge merry Christmas and heartfelt thank you from everybody at the Guardian and Observer. We’ll be blogging on right through into the new year - so don’t go anywhere just yet!