Fiona Goff (45) stayed in the village of Latri Kunda and helped at Hope Nursery, which has about 50 children aged three to eight.

She went to Gambia after husband Roy (49) bought her the flight for Christmas hoping the hot weather would help problems with her joints and back.

She fell in love with the schoolchildren and now Fiona is trying to raise money to improve the quality of education.

She said: "These children haven't got anything. They had some wooden benches, two blackboards and that was all the teaching equipment they had."

Many parents struggle to pay the annual £35 fee and hundreds more want to send their children to the nursery but cannot afford it.

Fiona and Roy, who aim to move to Gambia, want to raise money through a website to build a new school.

Fiona said: "It would be really fantastic to raise enough to buy land to build a school and I would like to see if I could build a fund to pay the teachers' wages so the parents didn't have to.

"If somebody could donate a laptop and a printer that would make a big difference to the headteacher's life."

To make a donation visit the website www.hopenursery.co.uk