An £56,000 appeal by three regional daily newspapers to send sick children on the trip of a lifetime has reached its target in a matter of weeks.

The Grimsby Telegraph, Hull Daily Mail and Scunthorpe Telegraph have all been raising money for the charity When You Wish Upon A Star which had to cancel its annual pilgrimage to Lapland.

As we reported on Tuesday, it was unable to take the seriously ill children to meet Santa for the first time in the trip’s 14-year history due to a lack of funds.

Sadly, for some of the children involved it will be their last Christmas.

But readers of the three Northcliffe dailies have rallied and donated the extra £56,000 needed to send 210 children from the papers’ patches on the trip in December after the charity had only £7,000 in the pot.

Grimsby-based Pat Wright, who runs When You Wish Upon A Star, said: “We know there is not a lot of money around at the moment and it is so heartwarming that people would do this.

“We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the generosity of the people of the area.”