Residents of Braintree and the surrounding areas came together and collected 17 bikes to help disadvantaged children in Africa.

Aidan Kelly, of Kings Park Village, Braintree, borrowed a van from Great Notley charity Parc and toured the area collecting bicycles, which he then delivered to Colchester based charity Re-Cycle.

The bikes will now be shipped out with around 500 others to Ghana, where the versatile machine will allow for faster and easier travel for youngsters and adults.

Mr Kelly said: "It isn't just the fact that they are helping people in Africa, they also support people with additional needs here.

"My son is autistic and attends Parc's centre so that is how the van became involved.

"Parc were more than happy to help and even gave a couple of bikes they were not using any more."

Re-Cycle also sell bikes from their Wormingford depot, with all of the profits going to help people living in Africa.

Mr Kelly said: "I took a couple of bikes up there a few weeks ago and had a look around, and I was really impressed.

"After that I decided to put it out there on Facebook to see if people had old bikes they wanted to get rid of.

"I am looking to do some more runs in the future. It is an easy thing to do and often the bikes are just gathering dust in the garage."

The charity celebrates its 20th anniversary in July, and needs to distribute a 5,000 more bikes before this date to reach its target of 100,000.

Tracey Lewis, communications manager for Re-Cycle, said: “Without people like Aidan, we simply couldn’t do what we do.

"We are extremely grateful to Aidan for organising this bike collection and to the people of Braintree, who handed over their bikes to give to our charity.

"Just one bike could benefit up to six people in Africa. A single bike will help an entire family get to water, to school and to work.

"If you have a bike in your shed that you don’t use anymore, please don’t let it go to waste - donate it to us."

Visit www.re-cycle.org.uk.