AS the Wiltshire Mercy Appeal moves towards an end, joint chairman Alex Duffy says it will always be ready and willing to launch another aid effort whenever required.

And he said he believes it would be even quicker and slicker thanks to its experiences of the last two months.

The Wroughton-based appeal has collected and distributed hundreds of palettes of aid to disaster struck areas since the tsunami hit on December 26. Thousands of donations and volunteers have come from across the county and beyond in an incredible response to what began as a single broadcast on local radio.

But almost two months since the appeal was first launched it has now stopped collecting donations and is busy transporting the last palettes for affected areas.

Mr Duffy said: "We've all been totally gobsmacked by the response we've had and what we've managed to achieve."

At the weekend Michael Ancram MP joined the list of politicians, commissioners and mayors who have visited the hangar on the Wroughton airfield to see the aid effort first hand.

The Wiltshire Mercy Appeal will finish its work at the end of next month but Mr Duffy said that would not mean they would simply disappear.

He said: "The Wiltshire Mercy Appeal will come to an end from the end of March but should anything like this happen again in two or five years time we will be ready to respond.

Fellow joint chair of the Wiltshire Mercy Appeal Manalito Chando is now organising a new project linking schools in Wiltshire with schools in Sri Lanka to help rebuild buildings destroyed by the tsunami.

The project, called 'School to School, class to class,' aims to give children an active and rewarding involvement in rebuilding work.

The Wiltshire Mercy Appeal estimates that around 2,000 palettes of aid have left Wroughton en route to affected areas.

It still has 429 palettes remaining which it hopes to have moved out by March 31st.

The appeal is currently seeking further containers, which cost £550 each, to move the palettes out.

It would welcome any more volunteers to help loading at the weekend and next week.

Although committee member Justin Oliver is sad the appeal is coming to an end he is determined to continue helping Sri Lanka in the long term.

He said: "I'm looking at getting a group of people together, separate from the appeal, and going out to Sri Lanka and seeing how we can continue to help in the future."