A FUNDRAISER from Yate is helping to save the lives of child cancer sufferers in Nepal.

Sue Woolston, of Somerset Avenue, has raised enough cash to buy a motorbike and a transfusion unit for impoverished children with bone marrow cancer in the country.

Mrs Woolston, a charity fundraising stalwart, invited family and friends to a casino night at the Fox and Hounds pub in Acton Turville, where she also held an auction and a raffle.

She raised £1,600 and told the Gazette she was thrilled that all the money would directly help youngsters who were desperately ill.

"This money will go straight to the children who need it," she said. "It will be given to a charity which runs a blood transfusion service in Kathmandu. Children from all over the country can use the service and they can get continual transfusions which saves their lives."

Mrs Woolston first heard of the vast numbers of children in Nepal who are dying of bone marrow cancer from her friend Chris Pinker's daughter Wendy, who lives there.

"I was so touched by their situation and they are so poor out there that I just wanted to try to help," said Mrs Woolston.

"I hold fundraising events every year and this year I decided to help the children of Nepal."

Eighty people turned up to the casino evening where items donated by shopkeepers in Yate and Chipping Sodbury were given away as prizes or were auctioned off for money.

"We did really well and I am so thrilled with how it went," added Mrs Woolston.

"I am so grateful to all the people who came or who could not make it but still made a donation.

"The Jack Russell gallery, the Lawns and the Fox pubs, Abraham's jewellers in Yate, Boots, Lloyds, the Body Shop, Ian's Fruit and Veg in Chipping Sodbury, The Entertainer and Superdrug all gave me prizes and I want to thank them all for their help."