A FRISSON of emotion rippled around The Northern Echo's head office at a little after 4pm yesterday. Journalists are a notoriously cynical bunch, but when our public address system told us that the £20,000 target had been reached and so Hannah Maxwell-Jones will be able to go for her operations in the United States, it was truly a special moment.

Although £20,000 is not an impossibly massive amount in a modern world where the National Lottery creates millionaires twice a week, we didn't dare expect that we would exceed the target in just one day - possibly even 'one amazing day' to adopt the slogan of the Millennium Dome which has had over £600m of public money lavished upon it.

By close of play last night, the total was approaching £30,000 and any money left over after Hannah's treatment will go into a trust fund so that others with disfigurements can be helped.

We sincerely hope that all our readers will share with us that frisson of emotion because it is you who have ensured we have done so astonishingly well.

It is extraordinary how the plight of this two-year-old girl has moved so many people to reach into their pockets.

On the phones, the average donation was between £10 and £20. One woman from Stockton pledged £100 saying "what the hell, it's Christmas"; a pensioner from Darlington gave £2 and, on the brink of tears, said: "I'm sorry, that's all I can afford."

In Billingham, a woman stopped one of our photographers and when he assured her that her name would not appear in the paper, she handed over a heavy box of small change. She'd been collecting all year with the intention of giving it to her grandchildren as a Christmas box. "Hannah needs it more than they do," she said before disappearing anonymously.

So although the day was extraordinary, it was also reassuring. On numerous occasions throughout this time of goodwill, you will read or hear someone say that because the British lash out £7,000 a second on Christmas treats, the spirit of the season has been submerged beneath a sea of commercialism.

We would venture to suggest that this is not always the case, and the people of the North-East have proved that.

On behalf of Hannah and her family, many, many thanks to one and all who contributed