Charles Dickens was a great supporter of the Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital in London.
In our present era of public service announcements, telethons, fun-runs, cyber-fundraising events and ice bucket challenges, it seems as if every disease or medical cause has a celebrity spokesman drumming up donations and interest.
Yet such effective fundraising practices are hardly new. They predate the Internet, television, radio and even the movies.
This Feb. 6, we celebrate Charles Dickens, the novelist and literary superstar of his day. He may well have been the first celebrity spokesman for a medical charity. The cause was Londons Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital and it first opened its doors 164 years ago today …
Read the full article at: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/was-charles-dickens-the-first-celebrity-medical-spokesman/