THREE friends from Lutterworth High School helped raise hundreds of pounds for a young girl who had to have both her hands amputated when she was a baby.

Kate Peach (11), Lauren Sanford (11) and Becky Gemerk (12), heard about the plight of Tilly Lockey – a five-year-old girl who contracted meningitis when she was little more than a year old and had to have her hands amputated as a result – and decided to help raise money to help buy and upkeep her prosthetic hands. 

Sian Gill, a teacher at Lutterworth High School, said: “The girls approached me and said they had heard about Tilly and that they wanted to do something to help.

“They wanted to sell wristbands to their fellow pupils and send all the money they raised to the appeal which Tilly’s family have organised.

“Pupils are not normally allowed to wear jewellery or bands or anything like that in school, but we made an exception so that they could raise the money.”

The girls raised a total of £265 by selling the bands, which they ordered themselves, to fellow pupils.

The money has now been sent to Tilly’s appeal.

Mrs Gill added: “This wasn’t something the school organised, the girls did it all off their own backs and said they were desperate to do something.”

Tilly and her family live in Consett, in County Durham.

When the youngster was about 15 months old, she contracted a rare form of meningitis.

Doctors were able to save her life but were forced to amputate her hands. She also lost all of her toes.

For more information about Tilly’s appeal, visit the family’s website at www.givetillyahand.com.

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