Pupils saving sight in Solihull

Solihull Junior School head girl Charlotte Wilson presents a cheque for £1,700 to Russell Richards, community groups and events manager

Solihull Junior School pupils have delivered the gift of sight to a record number of children throughout the poorest regions of the world.

The seven to 11-year-olds and their teachers raised £1,700 for Sightsavers from their Christmas campaign - enough for 100 cataract operations.

Charlotte Wilson, Solihull Junior School's first Head Girl, was given the honour of presenting the bumper cheque to Russell Richards, the charity's community groups and events manager, at an assembly in school. Instead of sending multiple Christmas cards, pupils and teachers sent just one card to their class and colleagues and redirected the money saved to the charity. The sum topped the £1,300 that Solihull Junior School raised for Sightsavers last year for cataract operations, which cost £17 for each operation in the world's poorest countries.

Teacher Mark Penney, who organised the campaign, said: "Our pupils have been brilliant in their efforts to change the lives of other children less fortunate than themselves. They are fully committed to ensuring that no child is blind when they could be seeing and that no child is at home when they could be at school." Russell Richards from Sightsavers said: "The achievement of Solihull Junior School's boys and girls in saving the sight of a hundred children has been incredible - and to have raised even more money than last year is a feat of which they can feel especially proud."

It is estimated that 75 per cent of the 1.5 million children who are blind live in developing countries with one child going blind every minute.