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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
National
Paul Britton

The £21.8m We Love Manchester Emergency Fund has made its final payments and will now close

The We Love Manchester Emergency Fund, launched after the Manchester Arena bombing atrocity, has made its final payments and will now close.

A staggering £21.8m was raised in total.

The fund, which was formerly registered as a charity on May 30, 2017, just seven days after the attack, stopped taking donations at the end of January.

All the money raised has now been fully distributed to families who lost loved ones, those who were seriously injured and to support groups and organisations providing psychological or other help.

Trustees have revealed a final sum of £400,000 is now being shared between the 22 families.

Altogether, the M.E.N. can reveal, more than 500 individual people have received pay-outs from the fund.

The fund began in the wake of the city's darkest hour - and the world rallied to answer the call.

From humble cake sales to hiking up Mount Kilimanjaro, whip rounds in pubs to fundraisers held at schools and by businesses.

Children gave up their pocket money alongside donations from celebrities and big corporates.

Every penny has made a difference.

The biggest single donation was from the One Love Manchester concert hosted by Ariana Grande, which raised £7.2m.

The funding allocation breakdown:

Bereaved and most seriously injured - £9.17m

Seriously injured - £4.1m

Other physically injured - £3.4m

Psychologically injured - £3.45m

Psychological and other support - £0.91m

Manchester Institute of Health and Performance (physiotherapy) - £0.37m

Running costs - £400,000

Trustees said not a penny of people's donations went on the charity's unavoidable running costs.

These were more than covered by £1m awarded by the government for these purposes, with the rest of that money donated to the fund. 

Floral tributes to the 22 victims of the Manchester Arena attack (STEVE ALLEN)

The M.E.N.'s 'We Stand Together' campaign, which we started in the immediate aftermath, raised £2.5m of the overall total, which was then merged into the general appeal.

The final, brilliant total raised was revealed in the M.E.N. in April.

Read more of today's top stories

Edith Conn OBE, chair of the fund's trustees, said: "From the remarkable fundraising efforts of the individuals and organisations who gave so generously to the courage shown by those whose lives were changed forever by the attack, being involved in this fund has been a humbling experience.

"The trustees of the fund collectively felt that it has now met its objectives and the time has come to close it down.

"We would like to thank everyone who has been involved in this tremendous effort and pay tribute to those who lost their lives, those who lost loved ones and everyone whose lives were turned upside down by those terrible events."

Details of individual payments are not being disclosed.

The fund itself will also leave a legacy.

It was the first such fund to hand out payments to people because they had suffered psychological trauma as a result of an attack or disaster and an independent review into the workings of the charity will serve as a record of how to manage a disaster fund in the future, including observations on what worked well and what could have been done differently.

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