Please may I use your columns once again to thank the many local people who saved their 5p pieces and with them made up most of the £100 collected by us since September 3 and which I have now forwarded to Bude Rotary Club's Shelterbox fund.

All of us appreciate the untiring voluntary work which goes towards the making up of these boxes and their delivery to people who have lost their homes in dreadful natural disasters. We know that no money is used for unnecessary administration — and that it is spent in giving life-saving aid where it is needed.

A shelterbox costs £490 and since March of this year we have collected £1,250.

This money has gone towards the supply of three boxes sent to a region called Inaruwa in Nepal where devastating floods caused dreadful damage, and many people lost their homes.

Acknowledging our latest contribution, Robin Blake, our local Shelterbox support organiser, said that at the moment the Helston team are busy loading boxes for the Congo and that our money is always used to help in situations of really desperate human need where boxes are installed by volunteers at the place where they are to be used.

So again thank you 5p contributors. Keep saving. We already have our first fiver towards the next £100!

Bude.