SCHOOLGIRL Bella Heesom rushes forward to send hundreds of balloons flying in a fundraising drive to send her mother for complementary therapy in New York.
Bella, a pupil at The Mount School in York, and the other members of her form, 10X, collected sponsorship money from friends and families to put their names and addresses on each balloon.
Form teacher Vivien Moon said they had chosen purple balloons because purple was a "healing" colour.
Bella's mum, Yasmin, suffers from multiple sclerosis and hopes to go to the Schachter Centre in New York after reading in the Evening Press how cancer victim Gail Hepworth, from Hemingbrough, near Selby, raised more than £10,000 last year.
Mount old girl Judi Dench has also pledged to pitch in to support Yasmin's appeal.
The York-born actress pledged to give a comic recital with her husband, Michael Williams, when she attended an open day at her old school.
She also bought the balloons for the race.
Another big boost for the appeal has come from a man who coached Yasmin when she was a promising teenage athlete. The coach, Dave Curwell, has promised that, if the appeal total stands at £6,000 or more by early July, he will top up the fund to take the total up to £10,000.
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