A STUDENT planning a mercy mission to deepest, darkest Peru is appealing for help to fund the trip.

A-level student Hannah Brown is one of around 25 young people and five staff from St John’s School and Sixth Form College, in Bishop Auckland, planning to take part in Project Peru.

During the trip the group will visit the Amazon rainforest before heading to a shanty town where they will help build an orphanage, work in a school and build shelters for the homeless. All those planning to make go need to raise at least £1,600 to cover travel costs and Hannah is enlisting the help of friends to produce a charity calendar.

Bishop Auckland photographer Ben Taylor has agreed to shoot pictures of horse rider Hannah and friends at riding teacher Ros (CORRECT) Seagraves’ yard, in West Auckland.

The 16-year-old said: “It will have an equine theme, be quite comical and we won’t take it too seriously.

“It will be a fun way for us to raise some money for this trip, it’ll be sold locally.

“I hope going to Peru will make me a better person and give me the chance to help people, show me there is life outside of Bishop Auckland and how lucky I am.”

She is now appealing for help to have the calendar printed for free and for sponsors to donate funds in return for advertising on each page.

Anyone who can help is asked to contact Miss Brown on 07411-115519.