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Weekly raises five-figure sum for brain-damaged toddler

A weekly newspaper is celebrating after raising £10,000 for its adopted charity in 2013.

Twelve months ago the Daventry Express launched a fundraising campaign to help three-year-old Jago Worrall, who suffered serious brain injuries last year in an accident in which he nearly drowned in the family pond.

Doctors had given him just a one per cent chance of survival following the accident but he bravely battled through and spent several months at a specialist paediatric brain rehabilitation centre in Surrey.

Through a combination of initiatives and donations from readers, the paper has now raised £10,000 for the Jago Worrall Foundation, set up to help fund the round- the-clock care and specialist equipment for the toddler.

The events included a charity auction which raised £2,339, a sponsored 10,000m jump which raised £2,500 and a charity gala at a local hotel which boosted the campaign coffers by a further £3,500.

The paper, which has just four full-time staff, thanked its readers for their generosity with this Boxing Day splash.

Deputy Editor Amanda Chalmers, who headed up the fundraising, said: “As a newspaper we deal with all sorts of stories and there have been many highs and lows this year.

“We are very proud though to have played our own part in one of the good news stories of 2013 – by raising this fantastic sum to help a local lad.”

The paper has now brought the year-long charity campaign to a close, but donations will still be accepted via www.justgiving.com/thejagoworrallfoundation

So far some of the proceeds have funded a hydrotherapy pool as well as work on adapting his home to better cope with Jago’s condition.