Money raised over the phone brings to more than £700,000 the total donated so far for child refugees

The Guardian and the Observer’s Christmas telethon raised more than £50,000 on Saturday, pushing the total donated so far by readers and supporters in aid of refugee children past £700,000 mark.

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Journalists who answered phones between 10am and 6pm included the Guardian’s editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, the Observer’s editor, John Mulholland, columnists Gary Younge, Polly Toynbee and Marina Hyde and senior journalists Larry Elliott and Hugh Muir. There were 1,500 calls and a further £85,000 was donated online.

Individual donations ranged from £10,000 to £1.33, the smaller amount being from one caller who said he only had £1.34 in his account.

This year’s appeal is in aid of refugee children with donations divided between three charities: Help Refugees, which distributes food, clothing, shelter and medicine to refugees across Europe; Safe Passage, which provides legal advice to unaccompanied refugee children to help them apply for asylum in the UK; and The Children’s Society, which provides services from language lessons to mentoring.

Donations will still be accepted online so please give generously.

Thank you for your altruism so far. Please help us to raise even more money this Christmas to help children who have fled war and disaster.