Charity denies link to 'fundraising' firm

A cancer charity for teenagers has warned the public not to donate money to a company which claims to be acting on its behalf.

The Laura Crane Trust has said it severed all ties with Sapphire Media which has been selling advertising for a wall planner in Ireland bearing the charity's name. The trust has offered funding to hospitals in both Dublin and Belfast.

The Laura Crane Trust is a legitimate charity based in the north of England which counts the comedienne Catherine Tate as its patron. It provides research and funding for hospitals that treat teenagers with cancer along with recreational facilities for teenagers who have to spend a long time in hospital.

It was set up by the mother of Laura Crane, a 17-year-old who died of cancer in 1996, and has since raised more than €1.5 million.

Stefanie Allwork, a tree surgeon whose business is Arbutus Tree Solutions based in Dún Laoghaire, said she had bought space on a wall planner from Sapphire Media last September and was invoiced for €229.13 in February, which she paid in March.

Last month, a Sapphire Media salesman approached her again and offered her space on another wall chart. He told her that the response to it had been such that €78,000 was raised and given to Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.

Ms Allwork said she became suspicious and rang Our Lady's Hospital to be told that it had never heard of Sapphire Media nor received any money from it.

She said: "I'm incensed that somebody could play on people's good nature to extort money from them using the name of a charity for sick teenagers with cancer and to tell people that they have given money to Our Lady's Hospital when they haven't.

"The businesses that were approached were small businesses and many of them supported the wall chart because they knew somebody who had died of cancer," she said.

When she tried to ring other businesses that advertised on the wall chart, she found some did not exist and an advertisement for Aldi included a mobile phone number which does not work.

Jacquie Roeder, the mother of Laura Crane, said they had entered into an agreement with Sapphire Media in 2006. Sapphire had agreed to fundraise £20,000 for them over two years.

Ms Roeder said the trust ended its involvement with Sapphire Media in October having received just £3,520 of the money that was promised.

It followed numerous complaints from the public about an aggressive sales pitch and the poor quality of the wall charts which did not even include contact numbers for the trust.

She said: "A lot of people have phoned into our charity. We informed them that, because of the adverse things that we've heard, we had gone to our solicitor and severed all contact with Sapphire Media and we are in no way associated with them.

"They have never been given the authority to 'represent' the Laura Crane Trust. They are not part of us," she said.

Sapphire spokesman Andrew Howard said they would be sending a refund to Ms Allwork and the reference to Our Lady's Hospital had been a mistake.

"It was absolutely not the case and I apologise for that. The person who had spoken to Ms Allwork originally was a fairly new representative within the company and we have strict guidelines that we must give the right information. I was perturbed when I heard what had happened.

"We now have no business with the Laura Crane Trust and won't have in the future," he said.