DON’T let anyone tell you that we live in a wholly selfish, me-first age.

Press readers have proved the spirit of charitable giving is alive and well.

On Thursday last week, we teamed up with Acts 435, the anti-poverty charity founded by the Archbishop of York, to launch an Easter appeal with a difference. Acts 435 identified 20 local people for whom a small sum of between £40 and £100 could make a huge difference. We asked you, our readers, to give what you could.

You have responded with wonderful generosity.

The cases Acts 435 identified included a 60-year-old York man who has been housed in a bedsit after being homeless, and needed £100 to buy a fridge; £100 to pay for counselling for a man with mental health problems; a mother and her young daughter who needed £100 to buy a fridge and cooker; and £90 so a York man with learning difficulties could get a court order to help him fight eviction.

In total, we asked readers to donate more than £1,600. And by yesterday, every single one of the pledges Acts 435 had identified had been fulfilled thanks to generous donors.

In other words, thanks to you, 20 people who have been really struggling will be able to live that little bit more comfortably.

Appeals such as this are no substitute for tackling the root causes of poverty.

But the success of this appeal does demonstrate two things. One, that by working together as a community we really can make a difference. And two, that there are still plenty of people out there who are willing to think of others as well as themselves.

Thank you.