ROTARIANS in Thornbury are joining forces with the town's Lions' Club to raise funds for victims of the tsunami disaster.

Members of both organisations will be out in St Mary Shopping Centre tomorrow and at Tesco all day on Saturday and Sunday. They will be asking shoppers to give whatever they can to help the massive recovery effort in South East Asia.

The 30ft tidal wave, which hit Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives on Boxing Day, has so far claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people.

The fundraising effort in Thornbury is in association with the Red Cross and members hope their collection boxes will be brimming with shoppers' spare change.

President of Thornbury Rotary Club, Allan Taylor, said: "Between both clubs we will be involving around 50 people. We just decided to get together to do this collection for the disaster fund.

"The Rotary Club was out collecting in Broadmead Shopping Centre, in Bristol, last week with several other clubs. We raised £16,500 in one day so it seems to be going quite well." Rotary has also been collecting at Michaelwood Services all week.