A TEESSIDE man is coming to the aid of students in the former Soviet Union.

Mark Tallon, from Redcar, is sending a donation to an art college in Belorussia to help officials fit a filter to make water safer to drink.

The 20-year-old was horrified to discover on a recent trip to Minsk that the water supply serving the city's art college was polluted.

It was contaminated by industrial discharges and the residual effects of the Chernobyl meltdown in the 1980s.

Mark remembered that there was £750 left over from money raised to fund a nine-day visit of six Belorussian students to his old sixth form college, Prior Pursglove, Guisborough, back in 2001.

Arrangements are now being made to send the money to the college so the filter can be bought and fitted.

Mark, who has been teaching English to both staff and students at the Minsk college, said: "Using the balance of the monies raised in 2001 for this purpose seems to be a very positive way to help them because a person's health is the most valuable thing they have."

While attending Prior Pursglove, Mark attended a youth conference in Minsk in 2000. He and two other students, Doug Tailby and Gavin Arnold, decided to raise enough money to fund a visit of six Belorussian students to England.

Mark said: "I was so impressed by the friendliness of the Belorussians during our visit that I kept on the link through e-mail and letters."