A group of students from East Durham College were very proud to recently present a cheque to a worthy charity.

The 6 students, on the Personal Preparation Programme (PPP), raised £60 which they presented to Sarah Goldie from Macmillan Cancer Support.

The PPP course runs for 6 weeks and is designed to help local 16 to 18 year olds gain the right skills and experiences to help them move into training, employment or an apprenticeship.

Course Facilitator Katie Olley explains: “As part of the programme the students take part in a local community programme. The students were asked which local charity they would like to help and they all agreed on Macmillan Cancer Support.

“To get started the team brainstormed what activities they could do to raise money. After careful consideration they decided they would create a poster of ‘Adopt an Animal’.”

The students downloaded pictures of weird looking animals and gave each one a name. They then went around the College asking members of staff if they would like to Adopt an Animal for £1. Once all the animals had been adopted, the names were put in a hat and Hayley Ozturk, from Student Services, who adopted Nelly the Elle, was picked out as the lucky winner.

From the money raised half was given to Hayley as the prize and the other half was donated to Macmillan Cancer Support. However, the students decided they would like to raise a bit more money so they made some football inspired cupcakes which they sold to staff and students when England played Slovenia.

Katie added: “The team were really motivated by the project and all agreed the it was very rewarding as it gave them a sense of achievement to be able to help such a deserving cause.”

The students that took part were Stephanie Bell, Sarah Cline, Scott Tatham, Matthew Thompson, Grace Unsworth and Hayley Wallace.