TWO friends from Burnham plan to travel to the Philippines this summer to help the country recover from devastating typhoons.

Tom Creswick and James Whitrow, both aged 16 and of Cookson Close, Burnham, hope to raise money to fund a visit in July when they will help to rebuild houses for people left homeless.

Tom told the Weekly News: “We’re both feeling very excited about making a difference to people’s lives. “We’ll be there for three weeks and, apart from weekends, every day will be spent on our project of rebuilding and re-housing the Filipino people, building classrooms, and clearing rubble off the streets.”

The pair are signed up with the company Projects Abroad, which runs a disaster aid project to support the country in the wake of the worst typhoons ever seen which struck in 2013, leaving thousands of people homeless, stranded and starving.

Tom and James now need to raise £4,600 to cover travel, accommodation, food, and supplies.

Tom said: “We are overwhelmed with the support already received but as always, we are looking for more donations to help us on this life-changing project.

“Six months obviously isn’t a long time to get the funds we need to go on this once-in-a-lifetime charity trip, so we are relying on every tiny amount of support we can get to make it happen.”

If you would like to sponsor Tom and James visit the website at gofundme.com/disasterrelief2015