A NORTH-EAST school has thrown its weight behind The Northern Echo's Forgotten Hero appeal.

Middleton St George Primary School, near Darlington, is planning events to celebrate the bravery of Andrew Mynarski, the 27-year-old Second World War airman who was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously for trying to save the life of a friend on a blazing Lancaster bomber.

The plane flew from RAF Middleton St George, now Teesside International Airport, and The Northern Echo has launched a £40,000 appeal to get a statue built there in honour of the rear gunner, who was from Winnipeg, Canada.

Headteacher Janine Gleeson said: "We think it is a wonderful idea, and by getting involved, we really want to bring the community and the children together.

"We are going to get people talking in Middleton St George about what happened -from toddlers up to senior citizens. It is only right that he should be celebrated here as well as in Canada."

The school hopes the project will include:

* The children setting up a website dedicated to Mynarski and an after-school historical club.

* Working with the artist commissioned to create the airport statue.

* Creating a Mynarski Remembrance Area, including a mural, at the airport.

* Linking with the Andrew Mynarski VC School, in Winnipeg, and setting up a penpal scheme.

* Twinning between Winnipeg and Middleton St George.

* Writing a song about Mynarski to be sung by pupils at a ceremony when the statue is unveiled.

The school wants elderly people in the village and Middleton St George Historical Society to help with the project.

Mrs Gleeson: "We would love to find people in the village who experienced the war and could become buddies with groups of children.

"There will be people who remember when the Canadian airmen were here and could come into school to talk about it."

Later this year, pupils will take part in a Mynarski Week, when pupils will dress, eat and study as children would have done in 1944, the year Mynarski's plane crashed in France.

The school curriculum, including history, geography, art and literacy will be adapted to include information about the war, Mynarski and his home city.

* When Canadian airmen based at RAF Middleton St George arrived back from overseas missions, the first thing they would ask for was a slice of lemon meringue pie.

That is according to Jean Fletcher, senior teaching assistant at Middleton St George Primary School, whose mother, Amy Berriman, served up the dish to the hungry young men.

Mrs Berriman (nee Butler), now 85, was a cook in the WAAF stationed at Goosepool, as the RAF base was known.

Mrs Fletcher, 50, of Salutation Road, Darlington, said: "When they flew back in, they always asked for my mum's lemon meringue pie. My mum had to have it ready for them.

"The Canadians really loved it, much more so than the English.

"I think it was because they did not have it at home so it was new to them.

"I am sure Andrew Mynarski would have it sampled it."

Mrs Berriman, a mother-of-two and grandmother-of-three, originally from Harrowgate Hill, now lives in a Darlington nursing home.

Mrs Fletcher said: "She had a stroke five years ago and has no speech now, but she knows about the Mynarski appeal.

"I think the appeal is going to do a lot for Middleton St George, and it is great that he is going to get recognition on this side of the water."

The popular pie is still made by Mrs Fletcher and we reproduce the wartime recipe below.

She said: "It's seriously delicious. My mum always said the secret was cold hands and a warm heart."