A Press and Journal campaign to raise funds for a new children's hospital to serve the north-east of Scotland and the Northern Isles has raised £5m.

It is one of the biggest sums ever raised by a newspaper-backed campaign in the country.

The Archie Foundation appeal was launched in the Press and Journal three years ago to raise £3m for essential extras - including parental accommodation, a children's teaching unit, an all-faith chapel, and a research unit - in the new Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital.

Editor Derek Tucker said: "It's been a magnificent effort and we are delighted that the readers of the Press and Journal responded so generously to what really is a wonderful facility of which everyone can be proud.

"As a result of the response by our readers, the north-east of Scotland has one of the best, if not the best, children's hospitals in Britain."

Appeal director Sharon O'Loan said the Press and Journal's contribution had been invaluable in encouraging communities and businesses to get involved through hundreds of stories and pictures over the three years.

She said: "If there had been a story in the paper about a fundraising idea, just after that there would be a lot of donations coming in from people doing the same thing.

"The P&J got Archie out to the whole catchment area of the children's hospital.

"We've done thousands of miles in the car but we could never have got out to everyone. The P&J did that and got it into the rural communities.''

The extra money raised by the campaign will be used to replace old equipment which was to have been transferred to the new hospital from the old, and to start up a specialist training fund for nurses.

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