Ref. 75783-01TSUNAMI APPEAL:A MOTHER who has just returned from her son's wedding in Sri Lanka is calling on Swindon people to visit the island to get its tourist trade back on its feet.

Noelle Hull, 53, of Charlton, near Brinkworth, has returned from the west coast of Sri Lanka where she saw her 29-year-old son, Mark, marry a local woman.

She said the west coast did not receive the full force of the Boxing Day tsunami unlike the south and east coasts, but it still suffered a lot of devastation.

She said: "The devastation was terrible to see, but imagine how much worse it must have been on the other coast where the wave hit hard.

"In spite of all this, the Sri Lankans are very philosophical, they never stop smiling, they are very helpful, and they all say the biggest favour anyone can do for them is to take a holiday in Sri Lanka.

"They all rely on tourism, but all the time we were there we only saw two white couples."

Her son Mark married 26-year-old Sri Lankan girl Clinta on January 15 in a Buddhist ceremony at a hotel near a river, after the beachfront hotel where they were due to be married got washed away in the disaster.

Only six of the 15 English guests due at the wedding made it, as most were put off by the devastation.

"Clinta's two brothers work in the tourist trade one is a tour guide for one of the large hotels and they are both struggling at the moment," Mrs Hull added.

"While we were there we met a lady who used to live next door to Mark.

"Like all Sri Lankans she was good to Mark, inviting him into her home, cooking him meals and doing laundry for him.

"She comes to the site of her house every day, but it only has its foundations left.

"Her visit is in the vain hope of finding her grandchildren who were washed away in the wave."

How to help

TO donate call the Disasters Emergency Committee on 0870 60 60 900 or visit website www.dec.org.uk

Or you can send cheques, payable to The Sri Lankan High Commission Disaster Fund, to the Evening Advertiser at 100 Victoria Road, Swindon SN1 3BE and we will forward them to the Sri Lankan High Commission, which can be called 0207 2621841. Mark the envelope Tsunami Appeal.

To donate supplies take them along to hangar D1 at Wroughton Airfield and to volunteer phone Manolito Chando on 07708 415362.

To volunteer at an Oxfam shop to help sort the donations call the Regent Street shop in Swindon on 01793 511138 or the Boroughfield Precinct shop in Wootton Bassett on 01793 850947.

If you are organising an event tell us on 01793 501806.

Jamie Hill