London - The last Titanic survivor, 97-year-old Millvina Dean, can live out her remaining days without financial worries after Hollywood stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio provided a large amount of money to pay for her nursing home fees in Britain. The Millvina Fund, launched in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Monday, said that Winslet and DiCaprio, stars of the 1997 Oscar-winning film Titanic, had responded positively to the request for a contribution.
The film's director, James Cameron, had also made a donation, raising the total of the trio's estimated contribution to 22,000 pounds (30,000 dollars), the charity said in Belfast, where the Titanic was built.
Dean, from New Forest, in the southern county of Hampshire, pays 3,000 pounds a month for her care.
At just nine weeks old, Dean was the youngest passenger on the Titanic when the luxury liner sank after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic, with the loss of more than 1,500 lives, in April 1912.
Her father, Bertram Dean, died in the tragedy after saving the lives of his wife and two children. Millvina's mother returned from New York with her children to Southampton.
Irish author Don Mullan, a friend of the nonagenarian, approached the stars to lend their support.
"I laid down the challenge to the Titanic actors and directors to support the Millvina Fund and I was delighted with the generosity they have shown in meeting that challenge," he said.
