MARKET traders have devoted their latest fund-raising efforts to student hostage Paul Wells.

Orritt's poultry and cooked meats, on stall six of Blackburn's Three Day Market, has raised more than £1,000 for different local charities.

Staff ask customers to select a worthy recipient and the collection continues until £200 has been raised. Sales assistant Diane Fallen said: "We decided on Paul Wells because we see it as the most urgent local issue.

"It makes me wonder what I would do if it was my son who had gone missing."

The money will eventually be sent to the Middlesbrough-based Hostages In Kashmir Campaign to aid efforts to discover the fate of Paul, 26, and three other Westerners.

Previous recipients include Accrington water on the brain youngster John Aspinall and the Lancashire Evening Telegraph-backed SuperScan Appeal.

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