GENEROUS pupils at an East Lancashire high school and their parents have donated £2,200 to the Indian Earthquake Appeal.

Students at St Augustine's RC High, Billington, Whalley, staged a series of fund-raising events at the school to help people in the disaster zone.

They and their parents brought cash donations into school, which acted as a "clearing house" for donations.

A cheque for the amount has been passed on to Cafod, the Catholic overseas development fund, which will pass the money on to the appeal fund which is gathering donations from a wide range of charities and fund-raising efforts.

Around 99 per cent of the Indian population in Blackburn come mainly from Valsad, Surat and Bharouch.

Head Anthony McNamara said: "The students wanted to do something to help the people in Gujurat. They have been reading in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph about the fund-raising efforts going on locally and wanted to get involved.

"We said to the parents that if they wanted to give money they could send it to school and we would act as a clearing house for it all."

The school's drama club staged a production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe to Year 7 pupils and students held a range of events such as raffles and sales to raise money.

"With the fund-raising events and donations, we've raised a decent amount," said Mr McNamara.

He also praised the LET for its support for the appeal. "It's important this disaster is kept at the forefront of the news and the paper is doing a brilliant job of it," he said. Around 30,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the earthquake and hundreds of thousands made homeless.