Appeal fund set up for effort to find missing Madeleine McCann

The family of four-year-old Madeleine McCann have launched the "The Madeleine Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned" appeal. The funds will be used to help find Madeleine McCann, who was abducted in Portugal on 3 May 2007, support her family and bring her abductors to justice.

Postal and online donations were being accepted immediately, with donations via branches of NatWest and The Royal Bank of Scotland being accepted from tomorrow morning.

The fund is being handled by the London-based International Family Law Group who say that "all donations will be processed free of charge". The group, specialist lawyers in child abduction and international family law, were last week instructed together with a QC by Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, to help them in the search for Madeleine.

The appeal funds will be channeled into a limited company, as the appeal can not have charitable status. There is therefore no opportunity for donations to attract Gift Aid or other tax-efficient elements. They will be used to help cover escalating legal bills.

As yet there is no direct online donation service. Instead online supporters are given details of the bank account to which they should transfer their donations, which will doubtless cut down on the number of online donations. There is no SMS/text donation yet either. Also, the postal address for donations does not utilise the PO Box facility, with donations being sent directly to the International Family Law Group's office address.

Some early errors on the website were corrected within a few hours. For example, the date of Madeleine's abduction was originally posted as 3 April and not 3 May 2007.

Any surplus funds will be used to help families and missing children in United Kingdom, Portugal and elsewhere in similar circumstances.