An update to this.
I tracked down the guy who hosts sophie-appeal.org and spoke to him on the phone. He didn't know that the site was about to get this amount of publicity and therefore, he wasn't in a position to make provisions for it.
He's obviously sorted something out, because the site is now back up. (Thank you that man!)
But the issue of giving money to this little girl has not been fixed.
To donate to Sophie from sophie-appeal.org, I clicked a link that took me to http://www.justgiving.com.
After making me jump through a few hoops, on clicking to submit my donation, I received the error that I've noted below.
Two hours later (almost) and I've still not been able to give this little girl some money. There is a lesson to be learned here.
I've given up for now. I'll try again tomorrow.
Regards,
Sonny
We're really sorry − there's a temporary problem.
If
you were trying to donate and had not yet reached the final step in the
donation process (where you click to confirm your donation after
entering your card and address details) you can rest assured that your donation has not been processed and your card will not have been charged. Please do try donating again after an hour or so.
If
you had reached the final step in the donation process and want to
check if your donation has gone through, please contact our helpdesk at
help@justgiving.com You’ll get
a message from us to confirm we’ve received your email. We’re a bit
busier than normal at the moment, so please bear with us and we will
get back to you personally.
You can find answers to frequently asked questions in our help section at: www.justgiving.com/help
− The JustGiving Team