SPECIAL pin badges in support of an Ipswich charity are today being sold in every Co-op store in the town.

SPECIAL pin badges in support of an Ipswich charity are today being sold in every Co-op store in the town.

The badges, priced at £1, were launched to promote the Somebody's Daughter appeal.

Proceeds from sales will be added to the fund pot and eventually used to pay for a safe house for young people caught up in vice or drug addiction.

Miriam Harrup, from the East of England Co-operative Society, said the company was delighted to back the campaign.

She said: “Our Co-op stores are at the heart of the community and we are delighted to be able to support the appeal by selling the special lapel pins through our network of shops.

“Anything that can help vulnerable young people in our region has our wholehearted support.”

The Somebody's Daughter appeal was launched by The Evening Star in conjunction with Ipswich Borough Council in the wake of the killings of five women in Suffolk.

The bodies of Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Annette Nicholls and Paula Clennell were found in remote rural locations over a ten-day period in winter 2006.

All had worked in the sex trade and all had drug habits.

Among the trustees of the Somebody's Daughter appeal, a registered charity, are Ipswich Town chairman David Sheepshanks, borough council leader Liz Harsant and Evening Star editor Nigel Pickover.

Donations to the memorial fund can be made online at www.eveningstar.co.uk, in person at Ipswich Borough Council's customer service centre in the Town Hall, by calling 01473 433777, or by sending a cheque, made payable to Somebody's Daughter Memorial Fund, to PO Box 772, Ipswich Borough Council, Grafton House, 15-17 Russell Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP1 2DE.

How can the problem of prostitution be solved? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk