TOTS swapped a rain-drenched park for an indoor venue when they took part in a sponsored walk yesterday.

More than 20 parents, babies and toddlers moved from Jubilee Park, Spennymoor, to the town's leisure centre for the walk in aid of families across Sedgefield who have experienced a cot death.

The walkers, from the Bumps and Babes, Little Rascals and Gingerbread clubs based at St Andrew's Medical Practice and Spennymoor Health Centre, helped raise £500 for specialist equipment that could prevent more tragic deaths in the district.

The total raised by the walk and events in the practice exceeds the £340 needed to buy an apnoea monitor, which checks breathing and sounds an alarm if a change is detected.

The visiting health team will use the extra money for baby diaries and scales, and it hopes Sedgefield Primary Care Trust will provide an extra monitor for the borough.

Fiona Rolfe, health visitor for the Spennymoor area, said: "Local families who have lost a baby to cot death and are worried about the risk to a new baby can borrow the monitor for reassurance and prevention.

"Hopefully, the efforts have also raised awareness of cot death and risks such as smoking and underweight babies and encouraged parents to put babies on their back to sleep.

"We are so pleased with the outcome."