BIRTHDAY girl Ellen Wilson and her friends made a generous gesture towards The Westmorland Gazette's appeal to help transform the rundown playground at Sandgate School in Kendal for youngsters with special needs, reports Rachel Kitchen.

Ellen, whose mum Sara teaches part-time at Sandgate, asked her friends to make donations to the appeal instead of buying gifts for her seventh birthday.

Ellen invited all her classmates at Stramongate Primary School to her birthday disco at St George's Church, and their donations raised £60.

As Mrs Wilson explained, the Stramongate pupils have the benefit of a new adventure playground and willow sculpture feature, so they were happy to give something back to the children of Sandgate.

Thanking everybody who gave donations, she said: "It was very generous of them to donate to another school.

I think the way they reconciled that is their playground is really taking shape, and I think they were happy to give to Sandgate because their playground is so bad."

People praised Ellen's 'commendable' generosity, and one parent even said she would be happy for Ellen to buy a gift with her donation if "the reality turned out to be too much."

"I thought this was really sweet because the lady took on board that she was sacrificing something," said Mrs Wilson.

The Gazette's appeal to buy a colourful, stimulating Playmaker feature for Sandgate's new playground, suitable for children of all abilities, has now raised just over £7,800.

See our Features - Campaigns section for the full story and more.