A CHARITY gig to help a family which lost a seven-year-old girl following a devastating house fire has raised £400.

Flames swept through a house in Esk Road, Darlington, at the beginning of this month, trapping the girl inside until firefighters were able to rescue her.

But her injuries were too severe and she died several days later in Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary.

Her younger brother and a family friend managed to escape the blaze uninjured.

On Friday several bands played a benefit gig to help raise cash for the family ahead of Christmas.

Rob Howdle, of Darlington, organised the event at the Turks Head pub in the town and asked those attending for donations.

He said: "It isn't much in the grand scheme of things, when you think about having to get a new house and pretty much buy everything again.

"But the fact that, given the circumstances of the show and having two weeks maximum to be advertised and seven bands to organise and direct, plus it was four days from Christmas Day so people would have had literally no money at all, it wasn't bad."

He said the collectors 'went crazy' with the collection buckets, even going around other pubs in the town to ask for donations.

"The night went without a hitch, couple of technical issues but nothing we could solved, the bands were amazing, the venue was busy, the sound provided by LJM Entertainment was great and all in all we were very happy with it," he added.

A cheque was delivered to the family by organisers, who were joined by Santa Claus and some elves who delivered presents to the family from the local community.

People have rallied around to collect items to help replace the Skerne Park family's goods.

A number of local bands of all different genres played at the gig, from punk to metal to acoustic sets.

Bands included Kickback Generation, Desolation, The Wax Offs, InAcoustica, Call of the Wild, Awe-struck and Chris Davidson.