Prince Harry makes personal donation to help children fill seats at Rio Paralympics

Campaign aims to ensure stadiums are packed despite fears of poor ticket sales

(Getty Images)

Prince Harry has made a personal donation to a campaign to fill seats at the Paralympics amid poor ticket sales in Rio de Janerio.

The 31-year-old gave an undisclosed sum to a crowdfunding push called #Filltheseats, which is trying to fill stadiums with Brazilian children.

It aims to provide tickets to 10,000 children.

The rock band Coldplay are among those supporting the initiative, which was started by Greg Nugent, former London 2012 marketing director.

It began by trying to raise $15,000 for 500 youngsters to attend the Games but after collecting $20,000 in a week, organisers of the games asked for the campaign to stay open.

A Kensington Palace spokeswoman said: “Prince Harry is following closely the Invictus Games champions who are competing in Rio and this is one way he is lending support to their efforts.”

Harry sent a good luck message on Monday to the 11 Invictus Games competitors taking part, telling them the “fight to the finish line won't be easy” but that he was proud of them and they should make sure they have fun.

Former soldier Harry founded the Invictus Games - a Paralympic-style competition for injured servicemen and women - in 2014.

The Rio 2016 organising committee admitted as the Olympics came to a close last month that only 12% of the 2.5 million Paralympic tickets had been sold. But sales have now soared in the last two weeks.