Titanic stars help last survivor

Published on Monday 11 May 2009 22:11

HOLLYWOOD actors Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio have given cash to help pay the nursing home fees of the last survivor of the Titanic.

Oscar winner Winslet, 33, and DiCaprio, 34, who made their international names in the 1997 film about the sinking of the liner were approached by a charity to help 97-year-old Millvina Dean.

The film's director, James Cameron, has also made a donation. Miss Dean from the New Forest, Hampshire, was just nine weeks old when the liner sank with the loss of more than 1,500 lives in April 1912.

Now frail, she has been living at a nursing home for a few years and last month she auctioned personal belongings and memorabilia associated with the disaster to help pay for the 3,000-a-month cost of her care.

The campaign called the Millvina Fund was launched in Belfast yesterday, where the liner was built, and it will help secure the future of Miss Dean.

Irish author Don Mullan, a friend of Miss Dean, approached the stars to lend their support.

It is believed that DiCaprio, Winslet and Cameron have donated 22,000.