A ROTARY club in Worcester has received a gold award for its hard work.

The Worcester South branch received the award from Rotary ShelterBox – one of only five Rotary clubs in the UK and Ireland to be given such an honour.

The club raised enough money through fund-raising to buy more than 100 ShelterBoxes for disaster emergency use.

Worcester South president Bryan Neville-Lee, said: “This is a great achievement for the club to be honoured in this way.”

A large proportion of the £50,000 raised to buy the boxes came from listeners of BBC Hereford and Worcester when broadcaster Dave Bradley offered to shave off his moustache to raise money for ShelterBoxes after the Asian tsunami in 2004.

Since operations began in January 2001, ShelterBox has helped more than 800,000 people and operated in 57 countries responding to disasters such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, wars and volcanoes.

ShelterBox was set up by the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard and all aid is distributed from its base in Cornwall. The charity is supported by international affiliates set up by the Rotary club network.

The ShelterBoxes, costing £500 each, contain a 10-person tent, thermal blankets and groundsheets, a practical tool kit, water containers, cooking equipment and a children's pack. They are sent anywhere in the world that they are required after an emergency be it a natural disaster or conflict area.

In the last three months ShelterBoxes have been sent to Columbia after flooding in February, the Congo and Sudan, Gaza and Australia.

ShelterBox relies entirely on donations to make its work possible. About half of the funds come direct from the UK public, the rest is raised by affiliate offices around the world and from other clubs, associations and individuals.

For more details, visit shelterbox.org.