SUPERMARKET staff dressed up for an African Day to help raise cash for a Kenyan expedition in aid of the East Lancashire Hospice.

Student nurse Vanessa Lockyer, 25, is leading the climb up Mount Kilimanjaro with five friends in memory of her boyfriend Kenny Cruickshank, who died of cancer at the hospice almost two years ago.

Staff at Sainsbury's, Darwen, have pledged to help her by selling raffle tickets throughout May.

They began their campaign on Monday, when 15 staff dressed up for a safari, complete with wild animals and hunters.

Vanessa, who is training to work with cancer patients at the Christie Hospital, Manchester, plans to climb the 5,800 metre peak in July as a thank you to the staff who cared for Kenny. The group is paying for the £6,000 trip themselves so every penny they raise will go to the £1.3million appeal for better day care facilities at the Park Lee site, Blackburn.

If you want to help the appeal, call the East Lancashire Hospice Appeals Office on 01254 660900 or Amy Binns at the Lancashire Evening Telegraph on 01254 678678 ext 208.

Donations can be made at any Natwest branch into the East Lancashire Hospice Fund Day Care Unit Appeal account, sort code 01-00-85 a/c 12804509.

Picture shows Kilimanjaro expedition organiser Vanessa Lockyer (centre) with Rachael Walsh (left) and Emily Bullough 'capturing' Sainsbury's duty manager Nigel Murphy, with checkout supervisor Sian Cooper dressed as a leopard.