Lawrence initially spilt the beans about hospital fund-raising programme (8)
I believe the answer is:
telethon
'fund-raising programme' is the definition.
(televised fundraiser)
'lawrence initially spilt the beans about hospital' is the wordplay.
'lawrence initially' becomes 'TE' (initials of TE Lawrence aka Lawrence of Arabia).
'spilt the beans' becomes 'leton' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'hospital' becomes 'H' (abbreviation for hospital on maps).
'leton' going around 'h' is 'lethon'.
'te'+'lethon'='TELETHON'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for telethon that I've seen before include "Lengthy TV programme for charity" , "TV broadcast for charity" , "Television event to raise funds for charity" , "Lengthy broadcast for charity" , "TV fundraiser" .)