Couple stay on to help

Richard Williams and his Sri Lankan partner Swarni Seneviratne have raised £15,000 by asking friends and relatives for donations and plan to start a charity to provide more relief when they return home.

"People here are so desperate," said Mr Williams, who described a group of 30 people descending on him when he opened his wallet to give money to a four-year-old girl whose father was washed away.

With Swarni's brother Eugene, the manager of a bank in Sri Lanka, they have already raised enough cash to pay for two lorry loads of goods to be delivered to Yala on New Year's Day and now want to build three houses for homeless people at Galle.

Mr Williams said the people who delivered the goods to Yala were reduced to tears by the bloated bodies and people rushing at them when they gave out the aid.

When the tsunami hit Mount Lavinia, where they were holidaying, it killed eight people on the beach nearby.

Richard and Swarni were having a lie-in when they received warning text messages from Swarni's brother telling them to "look at the sea".

"It went calm and the tide went right out," said Mr Williams.

"It was a strange sight, like the sea was being held back like a catapult."

Mr Williams said the first wave to hit "didn't look major" but when a second wave engulfed buildings and came right up to their hotel, they decided to get out. "We were very lucky," he said.

A New Year's Eve dinner at their hotel raised £500 for 35 staff families displaced by the disaster and one girl who lost her home and family.

Mr Williams said people in Sri Lanka were "in grief" and there were no parties at New Year. Marking the occasion involved lighting candles in memory of the dead.

After returning home this weekend, Richard and Swarni, who run an internet mail order business, intend to continue fundraising.

Anyone who would like to make a donation should email richard@mercantileinvestors.com or call 0870 75880088.