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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Leonardo DiCaprio helps Titanic survivor

Cast member Kate Winslet poses with co-star Leonardo DiCaprio at the premiere of the movie "Revolutionary Road" at the Mann Village theatre in Westwood, California December 15, 2008. The movie opens limitedly in the U.S. on December 26.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet have donated money to the last survivor of the Titanic disaster.

The Hollywood pair - who starred in the 1997 movie based on the 1912 sinking of the ill-fated ship - and the film's director James Cameron contributed $30,000 to a fund for Millvina Dean, 98, to help her remain in an English nursing home.

Leonardo and Kate decided to help after seeing an appeal by photographer Don Mullan in the Irish Independent newspaper.

Don had been trying to sell a special photograph of Millvina's hands, titled 'Still Surviving', to raise money to help her. He then decided to reach out to those who worked on the film for help.

He said: "An old woman, still trying to survive, this time from drowning under the weight of meeting her nursing home expenses, simply wasn't right, especially given the enormous sums of money the story of the Titanic had generated in the recent past.

"There were people out there who could, and I felt, morally should, help her. To fail Millvina Dean, the last tangible living link to the Titanic, would make a mockery of the world's expressed concern for the tragedy."

Millvina was just nine weeks old when she was taken on board the ship as it set sail for America from Southampton, England, in 1912.

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