Goodwill bonanza

This week they announced that several celebrities were hoping to appear at the February 5 concert, although remained tight-lipped about revealing names.

And prizes in a charity auction include a brand new Saab car, a helicopter flight and the front wing of a Williams Formula One car signed by driver Ralf Schumacher.

Rich Ellis, frontman with Iron the Cat, said: "This has just spiralled beyond anything we'd imagined. It's pretty exciting stuff.

"It's got so big we've got a team of 20 people all with specific jobs organising the event. It's amazing."

This week, Iron the Cat's guitarist Ben Slater wrote a ballad about the disaster called In Paradise and the band has just confirmed it will be recording the single at Peter Gabriel's Real World studios in Box.

Mr Ellis said: "Every penny raised will go to the appeal. Hopefully we'll be able to play it at the concert and have CDs on sale. Even if they cost £3 each and we only sell 100 copies, it's an extra £300 to go to people out there."

Tickets for the main concert, which is being held at the Olympiad in Chippenham, have gone on sale this week at £20 each.

The Spice of Bengal in Calne has rallied round the Indian restaurant community to provide Asian food for the event.

Tickets can be obtained from the hotline on (01249) 444144.

And the £160 tickets for the charity golf day at Bowood have all but sold out. Thirty-six teams of four will be competing against each other in the fundraising event on February 7.

Bosses at RAF Lyneham have decided to complete the weekend by opening the gates to the airbase on February 6.

For £10 visitors will get a tour of the base, including the flight simulators, and will get the chance to see where the aid is being packaged.

Two Easton Royal sisters Aleena and Darcey Hurst cleared out their toy cupboard to help raise funds for the tsunami appeal.

Aleena, ten, and Darcey, four, held a sale of books, videos and games at their home in the village on Friday and raised £110 for the Disaster Emergency Committee.

The books, videos and games that were left over are being donated to the Easton Royal School's bring and buy sale in aid of the tsunami appeal being held today at 2.45pm.

The girls' father, Steve Hurst said: "Like so many others over the Christmas period we watched the disaster unfold and after making a personal donation it was our daughters who asked the question "What else can we do?

"It was then that we came up with the books, videos and games sale. We had tremendous support."

One of those raising funds at the weekend was tea blender Mike Wright who, with a band of willing local volunteers, took over Worton and Marston's village hall on Sunday to raise over £1,000.

Mr Wright, who works for tea firm Twinings in Andover, knows the area struck by the tsunami well. He said: "I have visited Sri Lanka about 12 times over the last 16 years, the last time in October.

"Although none of the tea plantations that we deal with were hit, many of their workers live close to the coast and may well have been victims."

Mr Wright used leaves from plantations at Dimbula, Nuwara Eliya and Uva to blend the special Worton tea that was on sale on Sunday afternoon.

Local people gladly paid an entrance fee of £2 and bought tea and cakes as well as raffle tickets to help raise the amazing sum. Raffle prizes were donated by local people.

Mr Wright and his wife Valerie moved to Worton about seven years ago and their children Katie, ten, and William, seven, are both pupils at Worton and Marston Primary School.

Devizes mothers Jo Beim and Judy Rose, both from Avon Road, raised over £700 with their tour of town centre pubs on Friday night, armed with Red Cross collection boxes.

Mrs Rose said: "We were overwhelmed with everyone's generosity and would like to thank all who gave. In particular, to the anonymous donor who handed over a large brandy bottle of coppers which amounted to £32.78, the regulars at the Lamb who had already collected over £80 before we got there, and to the landlord of the White Bear who gave us the contents of his charity bottle which amounted to £197.49."

Kind-hearted firefighters in Chippenham gave up their spare time to transform the station into a carwash on Saturday and Sunday.

Around 200 cars were sparkling by the time they left the station, and crews raised £1,450 for the appeal.

Caring pals Emily, 12, and Laura Smith, 9, and Alice Gibbs, 11, decided to hold a street sale to raise money for the tsunami victims after seeing the destruction on television.

The girls, who all live at Moss Mead, spent two hours selling cakes and toys on Saturday and made £150.

Staff at North Wiltshire District Council have raided their money boxes and dug deep into their pockets to raise £2,245 for the appeal. Chief Executive Bob Marshall challenged each of the departments to see who could lay down the longest and most valuable trail of coins in the Monkton Park offices in Chippenham.

Workers turned up with boxes, bags and piggy banks crammed with coins and by the end of the day the total reached £1,550.

John Watling had his head shaved and sprayed green and yellow to raise more than £260 and after 30 years with a moustache Charles Pescod had it shaved off to raise £110.