WHEN 10-year-old Joshua Smith saw pictures of needy orphans in Malawi on his favourite TV programme he immediately wanted to help.
Now the conscientious Culcheth Primary School pupil has collected more than 100 pairs of shoes for Blue Peter's Shoe Biz Appeal - enough to buy scales for maternity nurses to weigh undernourished babies in the AIDS ravaged African country.
"He loves Blue Peter and saw that they needed to collect 500,000 pairs for their appeal," says his mum, Lesley.
"He wanted to collect 50 and asked the head to put in the newsletter a request to people for their unwanted shoes. But he reached that weeks ago and now he's collected more than 100. There's already enough to fill the boot but if it was up to him he would just carry on and carry on. He loves it."
Despite Joshua having special needs himself - he has a cleft lip and palate, which has needed painful surgery - he is determined to help others on the other side of the world.
His school is establishing links with Welizibuko Primary School, in Soweto, South Africa, and learning global awareness' is part of the curriculum.
Head teacher Craig Richardson said: "We do a lot of fundraising so the children already have that awareness about the importance of helping people less fortunate than themselves. Joshua has used his initiative to take that one stage further and I'm really pleased about that.
"He's such a happy chappy. He doesn't let anything get him down. We're all very proud of him."
To find out more visit bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bluepeter/appeal
