PLEASE, Sir - we want some more...Tireless mid-Norfolk fundraiser Janet Clark this week issued an appeal for more people to join a marathon reading of the Charles Dickens classic novel, Oliver Twist.

PLEASE, Sir - we want some more...

Tireless mid-Norfolk fundraiser Janet Clark this week issued an appeal for more people to join a marathon reading of the Charles Dickens classic novel, Oliver Twist.

It will take place at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse on Saturday, June 14, and will boost the latest relief initiative to be launched by the Mattishall-based GATE - Gambia Aid Through Education - project.

The readers, to include Janet, from Mattishall, and her GATE colleague Marney Kuyateh, from Garvestone, will start in the chapel at 10am and continue during normal museum opening times for seven hours, taking it in turns to read aloud passages of between 15 and 20 minutes.

They will also include Gressenhall staff and volunteers plus GATE supporters, and Janet was this week looking for more men and women, boys and girls from the area to make up the numbers.

"Ideally we need about 28 people, and I've got about 20 at the moment," she said. "I don't know how far we'll get in the story because some people are quicker readers than others. It is one of the shorter Dickens books, but I'm sure we won't run out of words.

"We chose Oliver Twist because, of course, Gressenhall is an old workhouse and because the money we raise will go towards providing a kitchen so that the children in a school in Gambia will be able to have a midday meal."

The fundraising target from the day is £1,500, and any extra sponsorship will be spent on equipping another school in the west African country with a playground.

Last summer, GATE supporters held a successful Bible-reading marathon at All Saints' Church, Mattishall, to fund a new milling machine for thousands of people in one of the poorest parts of Gambia.

w Call Janet on 01362 858221 as soon as possible if you would like to be one of the readers.