Readers can grab the chance to talk to some of their favourite Guardian and Observer journalists on Saturday as part of the annual charity telethon in aid of people struggling with the cost of living crisis.
Journalists including Marina Hyde, John Crace, Polly Toynbee, Owen Jones, Jonathan Freedland, Tim Dowling, Zoe Williams and many more will be on hand to take your calls and donations.
This year’s appeal is raising money for grassroots charities providing much-needed support services to people struggling at the frontline of the crisis, via our two partners, Citizens Advice and Locality.
Telethon phone lines will be open between 10am and 6pm GMT on Saturday 17 December. To make a donation by credit or debit card, and have a chat with our journalists, call 0203 353 4368.
Your donations will go to local voluntary organisations working in some of the UK’s most deprived areas, which are providing crisis support ranging from food banks and warm rooms to debt, benefits and housing advice, and mental health help.
Among those answering your calls will be Guardian editor in chief Katharine Viner. In her column introducing the appeal she wrote how it was inspired by anger and frustration at how deepening hardship in the UK had become an appalling “heat or eat” dilemma for millions of people.
“I have spent much of the last few months feeling furious, and I know many readers have too: a rage driven by the fact that in the sixth largest economy in the world, there are so many children going to school hungry, so many families sitting freezing in the cold,” she wrote.
Other journalists coming in to take your calls on Saturday include Peter Bradshaw, Amelia Gentleman, Jess Cartner-Morley, Nosheen Iqbal, Simon Hattenstone, Emma Graham-Harrison, Hugh Muir, Gaby Hinsliff, Owen Gibson and Denis Campbell.
Just after a week since it launched on 9 December, the appeal has raised £450,000. It has clearly struck a chord with many readers, 4,300 of whom have so far donated.
As one wrote to us: “No one should be left in the 21st century unable to eat or heat their home. It is truly Dickensian.”
Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “We’re incredibly heartened by the generosity of Guardian and Observer readers. As the cost-of-living crisis deepens, our advisers are going above and beyond to make sure no one has to tackle desperate situations alone. This money will help us support more people to find a way forward.”
