A regional news website has won praise for a six-week campaigning highlighting the issue of homelessness on its patch.

Cornwall Live has spent the past month-and-a-half urging readers to donate food, cash or time as part of its ‘Helping Cornwall’s Homeless’ campaign.

The Reach plc-owned site worked with Cornish homelessness charity St Petrocs on the campaign, which saw reporters Mike Smallcombe and Gayle McDonald talk to homeless people about the challenges they face.

Readers donated a total of £667 to the charity, which was also inundated with donations of supplies throughout the campaign.

Lois Wild, pictured, of St Petrocs, said: “We wish to say a huge thank you to Cornwall Live and its readers for the support of St Petrocs and for helping us in our mission to end street homelessness in Cornwall. It has meant so much to us.

“Letting people who are or who have been homeless tell their own real stories and share the realities of homelessness has created a deep empathy amongst the general public and a genuine expression of support.

“As a consequence, there has been an increased visibility of our work and raised awareness of homelessness. This has generated an amazing level of support and love shown from the ever kind community in Cornwall towards our clients and our work.”

Philippa Jenkins, editor of Cornwall Live, added: “I couldn’t be more delighted with how our readers have responded to the campaign we launched six weeks ago. It has been a wonderful journey of discovery for all of us involved with both Gayle and Mike meeting such incredible people along way.

“I can’t thank St Petrocs enough for facilitating all that they have for us and, of course, I would also like to thank all those courageous enough to speak out about their, often very difficult, experiences and situations in a bid to help raise awareness.

“Lastly, I would like to thank all of you, our readers, for showing the interest that you have and for getting so involved. We certainly look forward to building further on this with St Petrocs later in the year.”