A GROUP of Mountbatten School pupils have started a fundraiser to support a school in The Gambia.

Nine Year 10 pupils will visit the Mansa-Colley Bojang School in Jalambang in October. To raise funds for the school, they are cycling the equivalent distance, 2,700 miles, from Romsey to The Gambia around Romsey and the surrounding villages as a sponsored event taking several weeks.

Pupils Sam Read, Harvey Faul, Roger Mayor, Jack Arran, Josh Jupp, Dylan Hunt, Liam Gaffney and Clayton Tremlin spent evenings and weekends cycling as much as they can to try and reach their goal.

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Liam said: “I’ve enjoyed the challenge. I’m looking forward to meeting the students in Gambia and their way of living.

“It’s made me more active and I’ve enjoyed riding to school instead of the bus or a lift.”

Harvey added: “I’ve enjoyed raising money for a good cause while spending time with my friends.”

Harvey’s mum, Clare Faul said: “I think it’s a really good thing they are doing, just because there is so much, I think at the moment, negative press kids and anti-social behaviour, and I think it’s nice to actually see them doing something nice in the community and to praise that.

“I think it’s nice to see them out doing something in the fresh air”.

Clare continued: “They’re a really nice bunch of kids as well, and it’s nice to see them out there having fun and doing something for a good cause as well.”

Alongside the bike ride, other children at the Mountbatten School are also raising money to help support the Mansa-Colley Bojang School, with the year 7 pupils raising money to support a number of female pupils at the school.

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Head of Geography Megan Roodt, who is leading the trip alongside director of business services Chris Goodrich, said: “I’ve been so impressed with them, they’ve shown so much creativity. Sometimes we just get a lot of bake sales, but actually our students have thought outside the box.

“We’ve had sponsored silences, we’ve had students decide to do sponsored 5Ks at break time, which was a bit heat of the moment but they’re loving it. They’ve really been thinking outside the box on what they can do, but they’ve been running it themselves, they’ve been so independent and they’ve been shown a lot of leadership with it as well, so I’ve been so, so impressed.”

More information about the fundraiser can be found by visiting gofund.me/dd6c6d13.