Cumbrian boy raises more than £80,000 for Ukraine by raffling handmade bowl

A 12-year old boy from a village near Kirkby Lonsdale has raised more than £80,000 to help those fleeing the war in Ukraine by raffling a wooden bowl he's made.

Gabriel Clark sells his woodwork online and decided to make a bowl raising money for Ukraine.

He told ITV News: "Personally I feel quite hurt by it all. It feels like it affects me when it actually doesn't. And it all really unsettles me and that's one of the reasons I do woodwork, it's to calm me down and stop me from thinking about the bad things in the world.

"And I've sort of thought I could try and do something for other children like me that are having a really hard time."

It took Gabriel between four and five hours to make the bowl, which has the colours of the Ukrainian flag painted onto it.

He says it's quite straight and flat and he loved how simple it was.

One day his film director dad tweeted about it - the tweet then went viral.

This earned Gabriel quarter of a million followers on Instagram and Radio 1 and Radio 2 DJs were talking about him.

He then ended up with 20,000 orders for his work.

He worked out if he gave up school and worked every day it would take him 32 years to complete.

Gabriel said: "And I just realised I couldn't fulfil them and my dad mentioned that I've got so much power and responsibility because I have all these followers and I thought that I could do something really great for charity."

He came up with the idea of raffling the bowl instead so he posted it online.

His mum, Teresa McCann-Clark said: "We looked at the total that was going up and up and up and we'd gone through £5,000 before the sausages were even cooked!"

"It's exciting and overwhelming and a little daunting but we have to put the cause first and that's really, really exciting that we can do so much."

Gabriel has raised more than £80,000 for Save the Children's Ukraine appeal and counting.

The charity's Rachel Parkin says they're incredibly grateful for everything Gabriel has done.

She said: "Gabriel is a phenomenal young man and he's obviously thinking really quite heartfeltly about what it is that he can do and what he can do to support other vulnerable children.

"About two million children have had to flee the violence in Ukraine already and Save the Children has been there supporting children and families who've had to leave with immediate supplies like food, water and hygiene kits as well as the psychological impacts of war."

The charity says the money that Gabriel's raised will allow them to reach more children.

His Mum says it's been an important way to help children like Gabriel here in the UK make sense of the events.

Teresa said: "It affects children hugely and I think as adults we have a responsibility to try and protect our children but then I don't want to raise someone that's naive to what's happening in the world and what's happening to other children.

"As a village, we've been trying to work out how we can collectively do something and Gabriel's been witness to that so I think he's experienced us all wondering what we can do and how we can help and this has been his answer."

Gabriel says when he's watching the online total climb, it feels as though every thousand pounds is "another few children saved" and that "settles me inside and I'm feeling a lot safer about it all".