A reporter from a regional daily helped revamp a village school in South Africa as part of a charity project.

David Blackmore, left, from the Eastern Daily Press, spent 10 days earlier this year in a remote village in the country as part of a Bobby Moore Fund initiative.

To take part in the project, David raised £4,000 for the school and bowel cancer research, which he hopes to double under the Archant Gold scheme.

During his time in South Africa, he and fellow volunteers constructed a new building, laid a football and rugby pitch and carried out further improvements at the school, which was a three-hour drive from Cape Town.

Writing about the experience, David said: “On arriving at the remote Sandberg Primary School it quickly became obvious how much the farming community school needed a revamp.

“While schoolchildren in England enjoy playing football or climbing on a jungle gym during lunch breaks, these children had nothing to do except seek shelter from the sun.

“But thanks to donations from friends and family, I was able to join a determined group in overhauling the small school.

“In under 10 days we constructed a new building, laid a football and rugby pitch, built a jungle gym, revamped the toilets, created a large shelter from the sun and repainted the main building.

“I also got to spend time getting to know the schoolchildren – many of the youngsters have fetal alcohol syndrome, which causes physical, mental, or behavioural problems.

“Despite their problems, they were enthused by our presence and loved posing for pictures and learning playground games like duck, duck, goose and hopscotch.”

He said the group also contained former professional footballers Luther Blissett and George Parris and they held training sessions for the children, who were delighted to be given proper football kits.