The real St Valentine: alternative gifts to support Thailand’s orphans

Are you about to do a last minute dash to buy flowers, chocolates or a card on the 14th of February?

The Pattaya Orphanage Trust is asking people to follow the example of the real St Valentine and provide an alternative gift to support some of Thailand’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable children.

Saint Valentine was a physician living in Rome around 250 AD. He was also a Christian priest living in fear of persecution by the Roman authorities. He treated his patients by day and prayed for them by night, only accepting payment they could afford. His greatest miracle was healing the blind daughter of the man who would become his jailer. Valentine was martyred by the Roman Emperor Claudius II.

The Pattaya Orphanage Trust is offering as alternative St Valentine’s Day gifts:

• A talking watch for a blind child £14
• Swimming lessons at the blind school £27
• Life saving medicine for HIV+ child £37
• Sponsoring a blind child £15 a month

To order your special gift, by post or email, visit ‘Gifts from the Heart’ on the Pattaya Orphanage Trust website:
www.pattayaorphanage.org.uk/giftsfromtheheart
or telephone 020 7602 6203.

Your special loved one will receive a gift certificate, a card - including a personalised message from you - information about the vulnerable children you are generously supporting, and at least four updates throughout the year.

Visit www.pattayaorphanage.org.uk for more information.

So London, a new, upmarket, weekly newsstand magazine for the capital, covering arts and culture, is launching shortly. It will include stories relating to charities and philanthropy.

Nothing is set in concrete yet in terms of editorial but we are hoping to run a column each week written by a different celebrity or expert linked to a cause. The column has the working title of ‘My cause’ and will probably work a little like the Radio 4 Appeal with contact/donation details.

We will also be looking at events within the M25 that people can take part in to raise money for good causes. We are particularly interested in fund-raising events such as balls and dinners.

Could you please a) have us put on your mailing list and b) contact me if you have ideas or people to put forward for the column?

Although the magazine is for London readers it is not a ‘local rag’ and treats London as an international city and the heart of the country, and the stories we run will reflect this.

My contact details are:

Francis Pearce
Assistant editor
So London magazine

020 7025 5123
fpearce@solondon.co.uk

So London, London PPP, 32 Kingly St, W1B 5QQ

Thanks in advance,
Francis Pearce