Henry Smith MP has today attended an event at Gatwick Airport to hear about easyJet’s Change for Good on-board collections, which raise vital funds for UNICEF’s work in the global fight against Polio.

The Change for Good partnership has raised £3,035,303 since its launch in July 2012. Over £860,000 has been donated on easyJet’s flights in and out of Gatwick Airport alone.

Henry said;

“I was delighted to visit Gatwick and hear about easyJet’s fantastic Change for Good scheme in support of UNICEF, which is providing life-saving treatment to those far less fortunate than ourselves. The fact that enough money has been raised to provide Polio vaccines for more than 3 million children is a testament to the generosity of easyJet passengers.

“As the opening ceremony of the recent Commonwealth Games showed, UNICEF are not afraid to using innovative ways to spread the word for their vital work. I hope that people across Crawley and further afield continue to help them in their life-saving work around the world.”

The generosity from easyJet’s passengers, who have given their change on flights in and out of the airport, is enough to provide vaccines for more than 3 million children – the equivalent of the population of West Sussex more than four times over

Tina Milton, easyJet’s Head of Cabin Services, added;

“We are delighted that Henry was able to join us at Gatwick today and hear about easyJet’s fundraising for this extremely worthy cause.

“On my visit to Mauritania it was wonderful to see how the money from customer donations from easyJet flights makes such a massive difference to these children and their families.

“We’re so proud of what we’ve achieved at easyJet through this partnership. We’ve been raising money for Change for Good since 2012 and in that time we’ve played a big part in helping the world’s leading organisation for children save millions of lives. A big thank you to our passengers from Gatwick who have given so generously.”

For more information on easyJet’s Change for Good partnership with UNICEF, please visit www.easyjet.com/en/unicef