TAVISTOCK College parents and teachers have voted to donate funds to a Ugandan hospice after raising money parking cars.

Year 7, 9 and sixth form parent teacher associations were stunned when they raised £2,800 by charging cars to park on the college site on Goose Fair Day and decided to donate some of the cash to Hospice Jinja.

Teacher Sally Hubbard, head of Year 9, said: 'Many parents gave a great deal of time helping to operate the car park and the Year 9 PTA has decided to donate £1,000 to charity.

'We have a college link with Ndeeba High School in Uganda and many of our staff and sixth form went over there.

'My son went with the college and it amazed him so much that he chose to go back by himself the following summer and worked for Hospice Jinja and in a health clinic.

'Hospice Jinja is one of the only organisations offering palliative care in Uganda to those who are dying. It's made up of a jeep, a doctor and three nurses who meet every morning in a hut then drive hundreds of miles into little villages to give morphine to people in agony.'

Hospice Jinja's patients and their families are usually poor, poorly nourished and often living in one room mud huts with no sanitation, water or electricity. Lack of transport is a huge problem and most patients cannot afford the three dollars contribution for a hospital blood test.

Rinty Plukkel, Hospice Jinja's coordinator, said: 'I cannot tell you how grateful we are that you have raised these funds. Thank you so much!'

Dr Frank Hassett thanked the college and said Tavistock students were fortunate to be born in the developed world.

He said: "Over half of the world's population live in the developing world and here in Uganda a quarter live in abject poverty on less than a pound a day.

'We work in hospice palliative care, bringing relief from pain and suffering to the terminally ill who have advanced HIV, AIDS and cancer. Disease, malnutrition and ignorance are endemic, yet the Ugandan people have a great capacity for joy, hope and optimism.'