Diana Fund Names First Recipients

Seven months after her death left the world weeping, lepers, land mine victims, sick children, the homeless and aspiring ballet dancers will soon benefit from the charitable legacy of the unhappy princess who became “queen of hearts.”

In announcing its first awards Tuesday, the memorial fund named after Diana, princess of Wales, focused on a relative handful of charities with which she was most closely associated, but it promised support to nearly 100 others as well.

Of a total grant of 13 million pounds ($21.5 million), six favored charities and two special cases will receive 1 million pounds each, with the remaining 5 million to be divided among the rest as bequests for particular projects.

The initial disbursement, warmly welcomed by key recipients, disappointed directors of some also-ran charities. Diana pruned her list of sponsorships to six from more than 100 after her divorce from heir to the throne Prince Charles in 1996.

“Grants have been given to further the future of particular causes known to have been of interest to Diana, princess of Wales,” said Charles Spence, chairman of the fund’s grants committee.

Tuesday’s grants went to Centrepoint, a charity for the homeless; the English National Ballet, to aid young and injured dancers; London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children; the Leprosy Mission; the National AIDS Trust; and the Royal Marsden NHS Trust cancer treatment center.

Also receiving 1 million pounds will be groups working with poor people affected by land mines, a cause that Diana was vigorously supportive of before her death in a Paris car crash Aug. 31.

The fund, on its way to becoming one of Britain’s largest sources of charitable donations, also earmarked 1 million pounds for the Osteopathic Centre for Children in London. Diana was to have launched a special appeal for the center last September.

The outpouring of donations to the princess’ fund has cut sharply into donations to other charities across Britain, some of which expressed disappointment at the skewed nature of the initial grant.

The 5 million pounds earmarked for distribution to other charities that the princess once sponsored will be based on proposals for programs focusing on vulnerable children, young people, survivors and the socially excluded, fund managers said.

Vanessa Corringham, spokeswoman for Diana’s fund, said that to date, the fund has amassed 40 million pounds, about half of the sum from sales of the recording of Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind,” which he sang at Diana’s funeral. In all, receipts for the first year should total about 100 million pounds, including 40 million from a tribute CD sold around the world.