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SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: Dame Vera Lynn's sadness as her charity faces its darkest hour


Will Dame Vera Lynn’s Children’s Charity ever meet again? I can reveal that it may have to close because the coronavirus crisis has left it in desperate financial straits.

The news comes just days after the 103-year-old singer’s wartime classic We’ll Meet Again took pride of place in last week’s VE Day 75th anniversary celebrations.

Dame Vera, pictured in her Forces Sweetheart heyday, tells me: ‘I would be so upset if the charity were to close due to lack of funds after all the good work it has done over the years.’

Dame Vera Lynn's Children's Charity is in dire financial straits due to the coronavirus crisis. A video of her played at the 75th anniversary VE day concert is pictured above

Dame Vera Lynn pictured in 2005

Dame Vera Lynn’s Children’s Charity is in dire financial straits due to the coronavirus crisis

The Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity (DVLCC), which relies entirely on personal and corporate donations, has helped more than 600 families in England with children born with cerebral palsy and other motor learning impairments since its foundation in 2001.

In normal times the Sussex-based charity, which has ten employees, provides hands-on educational group sessions, swimming and music therapy among other services. But during the lockdown it has been offering one-to-one and small group video sessions for families using Zoom, as well as providing them with exercises and activities that they can do with their children.

Dame Vera’s daughter Virginia Lewis-Jones says: ‘The charity, which is very close to my mother’s heart, has achieved so much over the last two decades but is now in desperate trouble due to the coronavirus-linked hit to its finances. There is a real danger that it might have to shut up shop for good, which would be a terrible blow to Ma, and more importantly, to all those children and families who are currently benefiting from the charity’s range of support services.’

The charity’s executive director, Pilar Cloud, adds: ‘With all of our upcoming fundraising events cancelled or postponed and not yet rescheduled, we will lose out on £80,000 to £120,000 in income this year, which will have a devastating impact on us.

‘We need a six-figure cash injection just to secure the immediate future of the charity.’

Dame Vera, pictured in her Forces Sweetheart heyday, said: ‘I would be so upset if the charity were to close due to lack of funds after all the good work it has done over the years.’

Dame Vera, pictured in her Forces Sweetheart heyday, said: ‘I would be so upset if the charity were to close due to lack of funds after all the good work it has done over the years.’

TV’S Ben Fogle compares the trials of lockdown to his semi-naked transatlantic rowing expedition with James Cracknell in 2006. 

‘Today marks 50 days in lockdown, one more than the 49 it took us to row across the Atlantic,’ he says. ‘The isolation of lockdown and the isolation of rowing across the Atlantic were different but the same. We chose to row, unlike the enforced lockdown, but the approach was the same. To break it down into manageable chunks and to make the most of hardships.’

Kiera brings her grandpa Chaplin to life in song 

Like her famous forebear, Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter Kiera has many tricks up her sleeve.

The model has recorded a song in homage to the star. She has collaborated with musician Simone Tomassini on Charlot – French for Charlie – which celebrates the healing power of laughter in dark times.

On the track, Kiera quotes from Charlie’s speech in classic film The Great Dictator.

She tells me: ‘I normally wouldn’t have done something like this but the words are very touching and when Simone explained why he did it I couldn’t say no.’ 

Charlie Chaplin's granddaughter Kiera has recorded a song in homage to the star. She is pictured above arriving at a film screening in New York

Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter Kiera has recorded a song in homage to the star. She is pictured above arriving at a film screening in New York

Some lockdown joy for model and author Sandra Howard and her husband, ex-Tory leader Michael (now Lord) Howard. 

Their son, New York-based priest Nicholas Howard and his American wife Betsy, have become parents to a baby boy. 

It is Sandra’s sixth grandchild but her first by Nick, 44. ‘So thrilled about our very special new addition to the family,’ says Sandra.

Gilbert & George’s art of staying at home 

Turner Prize-winners Gilbert and George have been walking the walk in lockdown — all for the sake of art.

Self-quarantined in their East London home, they have been chronicling their ‘new normal’ routine in daily videos published online by the White Cube gallery.

Exercise has been exercising their minds, clearly, as the pair — who have been together personally and professionally for more than 50 years — are seen above practising social distancing as they walk on the spot in matching green suits and red ties.

The provocateurs regularly appear in their own work, having declared themselves ‘living sculptures’.

Gwyneth Paltrow has starred in a couple of her husband Brad Falchuk’s TV shows, Glee and The Politician. Now he has returned the favour by helping out with her lifestyle brand, Goop. 

Brad has been snapping Gwynnie as she models outfits from her G Label line in the comfort of their LA pad.

‘Brad picked up the camera to capture her in her element,’ gushes her website, ‘comfortable and pulled together in the very pieces she’ll be wearing to step into our new normal, whatever it may be.’

Has Gandy let slip that he’s tied the knot?

M&S model David Gandy is usually guarded about his private life, but he let slip an intriguing detail while isolating with his partner, lawyer Stephanie Mendoros and their 18-month-old daughter Matilda.

Writing from lockdown, he refers to Steph’s mum as his ‘in-law’. So has he secretly wed? ‘I’ve cooked every night for the six weeks I’ve been here,’ he says.

‘My mother-in-law’s Le Creuset set is getting a lot of use. Clothing-wise, I’ve been wearing my mother-in-law’s bobble hat a lot, which just shows how much things have gone out of the window.’ His agent declines to comment.

It is rumoured David Gandy and his lawyer partner Stephanie Mendoros have married

It is rumoured David Gandy and his lawyer partner Stephanie Mendoros have married

Lord Salisbury was planning to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of his ancestor Lord Burghley this year with a series of events at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. Now they’ve been postponed until next year because of the virus.

‘It may seem perverse to be celebrating Burghley’s quincentenary 501 years after the date, but there is an academic dispute as to which was his year of birth,’ says Lord Salisbury. ‘He himself recorded it as both 1520 and 1521. This gives us a very fortunate leeway, of which we are taking full advantage.’

How bear got in a jam with crooner Blunt

Chief Scout and television adventurer Bear Grylls could have enjoyed a very different career — as a rock star.

‘I did once play in a band with James Blunt,’ says the son of the late Tory MP Sir Michael Grylls.

You’re Beautiful singer Blunt and Grylls were both university students in Bristol.

‘He was always busking, and there were occasions when I would hang out with him,’ Grylls says. ‘I’d strum along and let him do the “glory” bits.’ Old Etonian Grylls, 45, went on to join the SAS, while Harrow-educated Blunt, 46, became a captain in the Household Cavalry.



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