A TEACHER who has raised thousands of pounds for a cash-strapped hospital in the African state of Tanzania is launching an effort to provide a badly needed blood bank.

Joyce Jackson and four friends aim to pay for the life-saving amenity by arranging a series of events in Middleton-in-Teesdale, near Barn-ard Castle.

Mrs Jackson has already handed over £1,500 to buy storage tanks and thousands more towards the cost of a £40,000 dam to provide a pure water supply to the Kilimatinde Hospital in Manyoni.

She has recently returned home after presenting four blood pressure monitors and a cheque to help set up an operating theatre.

She was joined by Barnard Castle police constables, Alison Race and Lorraine Nelson, Alison's sister Terry Hall, of Crook, and Kevan Bainbridge, a dry stone waller from Ettersgill in Teesdale. All five paid their own expenses for the trip, and have now pledged to raise cash for a blood bank.

Mrs Jackson, who lived in Tanzania when it was called Tanganyika in the early part of her married life, said: "We are still trying to work out how much a blood bank will cost. We know it will be a lot of money but whatever the price we will keep busy until we reach it.

"The hospital has improved greatly since I first started helping it. A blood bank will take it a stage further and help to save more lives."

The first event will be a coffee morning in the Masonic Hall at Middleton-in-Teesdale on Saturday August 7.