How stars aligned to help Londoners in distress

Campaigns Editor David Cohen chronicles the astonishing progress of our appeal this year - and how its big-name backers weighed in

- David Cohen

WE began our Christmas Campaign by revealing that food bank queues have doubled this year and that 4,000 people died last winter because they were unable to heat their homes - but we end it with the uplifting news that, thanks to your generosity, we have raised £2.4 million to help Londoners in distress due to the cost-of-living crisis.

It's been an incredible group effort involving the whole newspaper-print, online, ES Magazine, our film, podcast and social media teams-and a superb, dedicated team at Comic Relief, our campaign partner. Over the past 21 working days, we have projected the plight of struggling Londoners in more than 35 articles amounting to some 30,000 words, generated five newspaper front covers and one ES Magazine cover, and augmented our reporting with six short films, four podcasts and scores of social media posts.