A HEARTFELT appeal to help victims of the tsunami disaster is being made by a Kidderminster Hospital consultant after the selfless heroics of hotel workers in Sri Lanka saved the lives of his wife and daughter.

Dr Umesh Udeshi arrived on Christmas Day for a holiday in the South West coastal town of Ahungalla and the wave struck the following day.

Reliving the terror he, his wife, Sheela, and their daughters, Nehal, 19, and Anjali, 16, experienced, the radiologist urged Shuttle Times and News readers to support the devastated communities.

They flew back to England on New Year's Day after Dr Udeshi and his wife spent five nights in hospital in the capital, Colombo, where they were treated for infected wounds and Nehal had plastic surgery on her wrist.

Recalling the moment the wave struck, he said he was in a different room to his family when he heard a "big rush of water".

There was an "almighty noise" and the glass of the balcony windows cracked.

"I knew I had to get out of the room because it was serious so I turned immediately to head for the door but, by the time I got there, the water was already about 4ft high and filling the room. I couldn't pull the door open because of the water. It was terrifying."

The force of the water eventually destroyed the door and swept the 49-year-old into a garden where he clung to a pillar.

He battled through debris to discover two room attendants had helped get Sheela and Nehal out of the bedroom, where they had been trapped by swirling water. Anjali had been washed to safety in the corridor.

He then struggled through his own pain to help bandage other people's wounds in a makeshift casualty ward at the hotel.

Umesh, Sheela and Nehal piled into a truck and then hired a minibus with other injured guests to be taken from hospital to hospital in search of suitable facilities - only to be told at the third hospital they could not have the X-rays they needed and there were no beds.

They were dealt a further blow when they were told it was unsafe to return to their hotel as another tidal wave was expected. They spent a tense night in the home of the Sri Lankan minibus driver's family - away from Anjali.

It was not until the following evening that they arrived in the capital and discovered she had been evacuated there the previous night.

"It was all very surreal and almost unbelievable what we've been through but the main thing I feel now is that the local people were just so kind and generous and we need to do everything we can now to help them," Dr Udeshi said at his Hagley home.

"We feel that the Lord must have been watching over us to keep us all alive and feel very lucky indeed ... the hotel workers saved my wife and daughter's lives really - two young men climbed into their room with total disregard for themselves."

Cash pours in from all over district

WYRE Forest folk have rallied round to support terror-stricken communities suffering the effects of the tsunami disaster.

One of the many events to raise cash for the victims saw pensioners as old as 87 singing their hearts out to raise £2,262 in just over three hours.

They were all members of Cum Sing Wi' We who sang in the Swan Centre, Kidderminster, on Friday.

Bewdley pensioner, Joyce Weston, who founded the group 15 years ago with her husband, Ray, said £20 notes had poured into their coffers on the day.

l The £910 raised at the New Year's Day Duck Race organsied by Kidderminster Lions in Bewdley is to be given to the earthquake appeal. A full report and pictures will appear in next week's Shuttle/Times and News.

More than 300 ducks were entered into the event organised by Kidderminster and District Lions Club.

l Nine-year-old Christopher Jones, and his five-year-old sister, Jaimee, of The Oaklands, Kidderminster, were moved to donate £15 Christmas money each to help the suffering children they had seen on television.

Their father, Steve, said: "Christopher is a big golf fan and was going to spend some time on the driving range but decided to give his money to the tsunami appeal instead."

l A penalty shootout competition by Wribbenhall Wasps Girls Football Club and raffling donated Christmas presents, on Sunday, netted £640 in two hours.

l Revellers at Cookley Social Club donated £400, while Bewdley Town Football Club is collecting unused sports clothes and footballs to send over to the disaster zones.

l The Nonentities, resident theatre company at The Rose Theatre, has pledged £1 from every full price ticket sold for their first production of the New Year, Habeas Corpus. The six-night run starts on Monday, January 31.

l Kidderminster Rotary Club will be collecting in the town's Swan and Rowland Hill shopping centres on Saturday, while The Swan pub in Vicar Street is hosting a charity gig by Whole Lotta DC on Wednesday.

l Kidderminster-based charity, Operation Homeland, is to donate this month's income to the appeal, while The Murmur is to play a charity gig at Jackson's pub in Kidderminster on Saturday, January 15, and is appealing for shops to help its fundraising by donating items for an auction.

How to help

l The Disasters and Emergency Committee represents 12 leading aid agencies.

It says £15 would buy a family some plastic sheeting for shelter, a water container and purification tablets, and £35 would provide one family with enough food for a week.

To donate, call 0870 60 60 900 or visit the website on www.dec.org.uk