Knit wits set their sights on Paul O'Grady show

Alison Bowns, 47, Hazel Doult, 46, Mary Hatherall, 77, and Deirdre Cuss, 62, all midday supervising assistants at Covingham Park Primary School, have knitted a grand total of 135 baby bonnets for a Save The Children campaign.

Alison, who has worked at the school for three years, said: "We all enjoy knitting anyway and we've always got plenty of wool, so it seemed a good way to use it.

"Because we work with children it's nice to do it for a children's charity.

"Somebody can benefit from nothing really, just our time."

The colleagues were inspired to take up their needles after hearing about The Save the Children campaign after it was publicised on TV's Paul O'Grady Show.

Several of the women are fans of the show and watch it regularly.

They are hoping to send a newspaper clipping to his programme so he can give them a special mention.

Save The Children aims to help some of the world's poorest children and campaigns on their behalf for a better quality of life. The fundraiser also coincides with Save The Children Week.

The hats are part of a campaign to help newborn babies in South Africa.

About half of all babies born there suffer from hypothermia during their first week of life so are much more likely to catch pneumonia.

The four women, who help supervise children during school mealtimes, spent the majority of their free time over the last four weeks knitting.

"It's something to talk about, isn't it?" said Mary.

"How many did you do last night and how many have you done?'"

The feat was especially remarkable for Hazel who had to be taught almost from scratch.

The women said it was a real team effort and have enjoyed their charity efforts so much they do not plan to give up now and say they will continue to knit new garments.

Mary, who has worked at the school since 1971, said: "I was doing one at six O' clock this morning saying I needed to get it finished.

"We won't know what to do once it's all done."