The Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph has paid tribute to its readers who have raised more than £1,000 for its Save A Life appeal in just three days.

The paper has launched an urgent appeal to raise £5,000 by Christmas to buy life-saving medical equipment for Bansang Hospital in the African state of The Gambia - one of the poorest countries in the world.

Since the appeal was launched Evening Telegraph readers have been donating to collection boxes in its Rushden, Corby, Wellingborough and Kettering offices and at its kiosk in Kettering town centre.

Many have also being dropping into branches of Barclays Bank where a special account has been set up.

The money raised will be used to buy a second maternity ward incubator for the hospital to save an estimated 50 lives a year, and a supply of cannulas, which would be used to administer drugs to treat conditions such as malaria and dysentery.

Cannulas cost just 70p each - but patients in Bansang are dying because the hospital has run short and cannot afford to buy more.

The paper estimates that just 10p per reader would allow it to hit its target, and to coincide with the appeal reporter Alistair Whitfield has written a series of reports on life at Bansang Hospital and on why the money is needed.

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