Children at a school in Ghana will no longer have to walk miles for food thanks to a donation of 60 bicycles from Marlborough residents.

The bikes will be given to pupils at Karbo Primary School, Lawra, in the north west of Ghana, via the Ramsbury-based charity Action Through Enterprise.

A plea for the bikes was put on Facebook by Sue Brady, who owns Sue Brady Catering in Marlborough Business Park, after she discovered what lengths the pupils had to go to get their school lunches.

She said: “We sponsor eight children for free school meals every day and when I found out they had to walk for miles to get to school I thought ‘let’s get some bikes out to them.’ “I put it on Facebook in the summer and I was so surprised at the response. We didn’t just get bikes; we got books, tennis rackets and football boots.

“We also raised the money to get the container over to Ghana.

“We held cake sales which raised £500 and we held a race night which raised £2,300.”

Mrs Brady took the bikes to Yorkshire in October where they were fixed up by the Hull and Liverpool prison service.

On December 14 she returned to Yorkshire with Sarah Gardner, operations director of Action Through Enterprise, to load the bikes onto the container.

Also loaded onto the container was entire contents of a former Yorkshire independent school and a consignment of children’s physiotherapy equipment, wheelchairs and mobility items donated by North Yorkshire charity PhysioNet.

Miss Gardner said: “The average child has to walk 45 minutes to school, so we’ll be giving the bikes to the children that have to walk the furthest.

“Receiving this equipment will be life-changing , especially the school equipment, books and wheelchairs.

“The children who need them have literally been lying on the floor.”

Miss Gardner flew out to Ghana on Friday and will be there to pick up the equipment when it arrives in mid-January.

To find out more about the charity, visit ateghana.org