A STUDENT from Chard is set to take on a 15 mile trek across Africa as well as building and repairing playgrounds in Uganda after raising nearly £1,000.

Grace Fox still needs to raise around £700 more to fund the expedition and is appealing to the public to help her.

If successful, Grace will fly to west Uganda on June 8 before spending three weeks with the charity East African Playgrounds.

Grace said: “I’ve signed up to raise £1,700 in aid of East African Playgrounds, to help bring the gift of play to some of the world’s most disadvantaged children.

“Play has an incredible benefit on the development of a child. It builds physical, social, emotional and cognitive skills, while giving children the space in which to make sense of the world and exercise freedom of thought, too.

“I’ll be building a playground in Uganda this summer, so please help me help EAP by giving whatever you can.”

The first two weeks of Grace’s trip will involve building a playground at a school in a small village with DIY work with her team from Plymouth university, and also visiting an old playground to re-paint and fix up any damages.

She added: “I am so excited to go on this adventure and build the playground as it’s going to bring so much happiness to the children in the village and make a huge difference to their lives.

“Playgrounds are everywhere here and I believe we take them for granted, so I’m excited to do this to help these children who haven’t even seen a playground before.”

The third week will be spent trekking more than 15 miles to find the endangered silver back gorillas in their natural habitat.

Grace added: “To do this I need to fundraise £1700, which goes towards things such as building supplies and a gorilla permit, which helps to protect the gorillas and their habitat.”

To donate, visit plymouthraggorilla2016.everydayhero.com/uk/grace-s-uganda-gorilla-trek.