YOUR tremendous generosity has helped to raise nearly one thousand pounds – and countless smiles among our British troops in the Gulf.Today The Evening Star can reveal that your donations for our Gifts for the Gulf campaign have amounted to a spectacular £960 total in just a few short weeks.

By Debbie Watson

YOUR tremendous generosity has helped to raise nearly one thousand pounds – and countless smiles among our British troops in the Gulf.

Today The Evening Star can reveal that your donations for our Gifts for the Gulf campaign have amounted to a spectacular £960 total in just a few short weeks.

The same generosity and compassion saw our collection point – and the one at Asda on Goddard Road in Ipswich – completely inundated with toiletries and food products for our servicemen and women.

With the help of Ipswich military mum Pamela Bannister, we have been able to send dozens of morale-boosting parcels to the guys and girls involved in the war on Iraq.

And today, with the fantastic news that our region's military personnel will soon be on their way home from the Gulf, we are rounding up our collection and will now be sending all left over parcels and goods to charitable causes in and around Ipswich.

Having spent the last month surrounded by generously donated gifts at her Ipswich home, Pamela is pleased to be passing on the remaining donations to charity.

She said: "We've sent so many parcels to so many boys and girls from across Suffolk, and we just couldn't have anticipated how generous everyone would be.

"I was stunned by the amount of things that came flooding in to Asda and to The Evening Star.

"The response has been incredible."

Pamela's two sons, Paul and Jason, are both currently serving in the Gulf – along with thousands from around this region.

She added: "With the guys now starting to come home, we've been getting messages from our loved ones that say now is the time to start wrapping it all up.

"I think it's the perfect conclusion to the campaign that we now start giving some of those parcels to charitable causes like the hospice and other deserving organisations around the region."

The Evening Star would like to thank Pamela, Asda in Goddard Road, Ipswich, and all those of you who sent such generous donations for this campaign.