A DYNAMIC duo from Prestwich are set to build a hospital ward in Africa — and are hoping residents can help their cause.

Colleagues Paul Singleton, aged 52, of The Drive, and Bob May, aged 50, of Glebelands Road, Prestwich, are set to embark on a 6,000-mile round trip to Sierra Leone with 12 others on January 24.

The pals will be visiting a school there, supported by the charity Mission Direct, and want people to donate football shirts, stationery and toys as well as bandages and surgical gloves for the Waterloo Hospital.

It will be the third time Paul and Bob — both directors at planning consultancy firm Turley Associates — have been on such a trip.

Bob explained: “Four of us in the group have been before and I think it is extra special for us as we have got to know the people there on our previous journeys.

“The people we will see there know we are coming and it’s exciting to be able to see them and do something that will help them.”

The group will fly from London to the capital Freetown and then take a ferry across Tagrin Bay before a final journey by road to their destination.

Bob said: “We will be there for eight days and will spend the first few days making bricks and constructing the foundations of the hospital extension, which will eventually form a children’s ward.

“Our goal is to get the building at head height and then two more groups like ours will come in and finish it.”

Sierra Leone has spent the past 11 years recovering from an 11-year civil war, which left more than 50,000 people dead.

Bob said: “The hospital serves the population of a town the size of Bury and there are only two wards. We hope that the new ward will help.

“Paul is looking forward to the trip and has had a lot of support from his local church, Our Lady of Grace in Prestwich.

“We are all thankful to the support we have had and are grateful for any donations made.”

People can drop donations off at the church, in Fairfax Road, during working hours.