Wigan charitable canine brings in £2k for children's hospice

Monty the Newfoundland and his owner Mark Sanders

Mark and his canine companion were live on Facebook or streamed videos online each evening from December 1 until Christmas Eve, reading from the poems and stories which have made Monty something of an online star in recent years as well as hosting raffles and giveaways.

However, the star of the shows turned out to be Mark’s four-year-old granddaughter Pippa, who captured audiences’ hearts by telling jokes.

Mark, from Hawkley Hall, expressed delight at the final amount of £2,500 raised by Monty’s generous fan club around the world and said a busy December for his own family had got him thinking even more about the work the Chorley-based hospice does for children with life-limiting illnesses.

He said: “The generosity and kindness of people has been amazing.

“The donation which got us over the target came from a lady in Australia who sent a lovely message saying how much it meant to her. It has been really lovely.

“It has cheered people up and it’s nice to be able to do that. It has made our year and hopefully it has helped other people too.

“Everybody has loved Pippa. She was telling cracker jokes and doing a cute little laugh at the end.

“It’s even more poignant for us to be supporting Derian House as my son had his first child while all this has been going on. That really brings home how lucky we are and how we should treasure what we’ve got.”

Mark set a second fund-raising total of £2,020 after Monty’s campaign breezed through the initial £1,000 target in just a few days.

Donations flowed in from the other side of the pond in the USA and Canada, from Down Under and in New Zealand and also from across Europe.

Monty’s fans also enjoyed the unveiling of the latest festive poem on December 24, which this year was influenced by the popular film Elf.

Monty and Mark will now visit Derian House later this month.

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