Charity chief warns Cherie guests to donate with care

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By Roger Maynard in Perth
Hospital executive complains of shortfall after dinner run by Blair visit promoter
Times


GUESTS at a charity dinner hosted by Cherie Blair in Adelaide today were told to exercise caution before parting with their cash.

Maurice Henderson, the executive officer of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Research Foundation in the city, said that his charity had been left £75,000 short of its fundraising target at a banquet staged by the organiser of Mrs Blair’s tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Henderson said: “I don’t think people who go to these events realise how little of what they are paying is actually going to the charity. If you are going along, pay by cheque and write it out to the charity — at least the charity can then control what’s happening.”

Mr Henderson’s 2003 charity banquet, hosted by Rudolph Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York, was organised by Max Markson, the PR guru behind the current tour by the Prime Minister’s wife.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,172-1476014,00.html