MORE than 1,100 bras have winged their way to remote African villages after an Isle of Wight fundraiser found a novel way of helping poverty-stricken communities.

Sarah Tyrell-Jones, community fundraiser for Breast Cancer Care on the Isle of Wight, had initially hoped to collect a handful of contributions but was astonished by the vast quantity received — with people from all over the country donating to the cause.

She said: “Initially we received a small number of donations from people local to our drop-off point, Lulu’s Tea Rooms in Sandown.

“Over the course of a month the collection really snowballed beyond our expectations.

"This is something a lot of us take for granted, but in many of these countries people don’t have access to proper bras.

“I would like to thank Hover Travel, the many volunteers who got involved, and Lulu’s for all of their help.

“I am so grateful to everyone who donated, but I could happily not set eyes on another bra for a long time.”

Having collected the bras, Sarah and five volunteers transported them, via a dozen large suitcases on the hovercraft — free of charge, courtesy of Hovertravel — to a courier from Breast Cancer Research, who took them to London to be sent to various African villages.

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