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Daily donates part of cover price to April Jones fund

A regional daily will donate part of its cover price to a fund set up in memory of murdered schoolgirl April Jones, to mark the anniversary of her disappearance.

The North Wales Daily Post is donating 10p for each copy of its West edition which was sold on Tuesday – a year on from the day April went missing.

The title is also publishing a series of features each day this week to mark the anniversary, which all focus on a different aspect of the impact it has had and include timelines of the events of last year.

Five-year-old April disappeared on 1 October last year and Mark Bridger was jailed for life earlier this year for her abduction and murder.

The donation by the title was approved by Trinity Mirror regional managing director Steve Anderson-Dixon and is expected to see at least £1,500 given to the fund, which has now raised more than £70,000.

Editor Alison Gow said: “The anniversary was always going to be a hard time for the town, especially as it followed so closely to April’s funeral.

“We’re widely regarded as the local daily paper in Machynlleth and we felt, as did the newspaper sales department, that a cover price donation on the anniversary itself was at least some gesture of support on a horrible day.

“That has formed part of a week-long series looking not just at past events, but also at April’s legacy, and the changes of the past 12 months.

“Our MD, Steve Anderson-Dixon gave the go-ahead, and so we were able to tell readers buying the West edition on Tuesday that they were also making a donation to the April fund. We don’t have the sales figures yet but it will be at least £1,500. 

“I’m pleased we were able to do this; the whole newsroom was shocked by April’s murder and I doubt anyone here will ever forget covering that story.”

The Daily Post told readers it was making the donation “as a gesture of solidarity with our readers who so generously donated time, effort and money in the hunt to find April.”

Reporter Alex Hickey has written the stories to mark the anniversary, which include looking at the fund and how it will be used, how the town of Machynlleth is moving on and a focus on the search for April, who has never been found and whose funeral was held last week.

Alex said: “I think people in the town want to move on. People are saying they will never forget April but they want to move on as a town.”

Applications for charities and local groups to apply for cash from April’s Fund have now closed and the trustees will now decide where the money will be distributed.