Celebrities show support for British Red Cross Beirut Emergency Appeal

Celebrities across the UK have been quick to show their support following the devastating explosion in Beirut which has left over 137 dead and 5,000 injured with many still missing. It is now a race against time for the Red Cross search and rescue teams to find people trapped in the rubble, and the next few hours and days are critical.

BBC Match of the Day presenter, Gary Lineker, who is a long-standing supporter of the British Red Cross, recorded a message from his home in the hope that it will resonate around the world, urging the British public to support in whatever way they can. He said:

“The scale and size of the emergency is huge. The dust won’t settle quickly or easily for people in Beirut and they face a long and difficult road ahead.

“Please donate what you can to the Beirut Emergency Appeal to save lives right now and help people recover.”

Other celebrities have shown their support on social media including David Beckham, Riyadh Khalaf, Ben Fogle, JB Gill, Jason Isaacs, singer Joy Crookes, Dominic Cooper, Arlo Parks, Aiysha Hart, Olympian sprinter Adam Gemili and makeup artist Lisa Eldridge.

Many people have lost their homes in Beirut. The Lebanese Red Cross has set up temporary shelters for 1,000 families since the explosion, with food, water and mattresses, and they hope to scale this up to 10,000 families over the coming days and weeks.

The Lebanese Red Cross are the only provider of ambulance services in the country, and many people are already reliant on its health centres and mobile medical units, with makeshift clinics being set up in the streets to treat the thousands of people wounded from the blast. With the coronavirus pandemic and now the explosion in Beirut, the Red Cross are needed more than ever.

Tala El Samad, 27, is a post-graduate student from Lebanon living in London, who also volunteers for the British Red Cross. From focusing on supporting those left vulnerable and isolated by coronavirus here in the UK, she’s now worried about people caught up in the emergency in her home country.

“Hospitals were already overwhelmed by coronavirus, the economy was in trouble, and now this. 

“There’s still a lot of missing people. The first worry is to find them and to either treat them or have to say goodbye.

“The bigger worry is how to recover from that. A lot of people, even though they haven’t lost anyone, they’ve lost houses or they cannot sleep in their house.” 

“I don’t know what the country would do without the Lebanese Red Cross, really. I don’t think the country could do without them. Whenever disaster strikes, whenever anything happens. They’re just always there.”

British Red Cross worker Jeremy Smith, whose flat in Beirut was destroyed in the explosion, is now working alongside colleagues from the Lebanese Red Cross.

“There have been teams of Lebanese Red Cross volunteers and others on the streets handing out water, sweeping rubble, checking buildings to make sure no one is trapped. All of the money raised will help the relief work on the ground and donating to the Beirut Emergency Appeal will help saves lives.”

To donate to the British Red Cross Beirut Emergency Appeal: redcross.org.uk/Beirut