THOUGHTFUL school pupils at a Greenock secondary school proved they have bags of generosity by raising money to help men suffering from prostate cancer.

Twelve sixth year pupils at Inverclyde Academy joined forces with their teachers to collect the money during a charity bag pack at Tesco in Greenock.

Their efforts raised £550 — £100 of which will be donated to the Prostate Scotland group.

Pupil and organiser Kiera Purdie says she was keen to raise awareness of the charity as it’s something of a less well known good cause.

Kiera said: “I’ve done bag packs with the school before so I thought it would be a good idea to fundraise again.

“I decided to raise money for Prostate Scotland as you always hear about the cancers that affect women but not really about the cancers affecting men.

“I got in touch with our year group and asked if they would take part in a bag pack and it was a big success.” Mae Bell, information and advice co-ordinator at the charity, thanked Kiera and her friends.

She said: “It’s absolutely wonderful what they’ve done and that’s why I came to the school to personally thank the pupils.

“Prostate cancer is something young teenagers don’t normally think about as it tends to be a disease of middle age, although people as young as 18 can be affected by prostatitis, which is an inflammation of the prostate gland.

“We really appreciate this donation and look forward to developing links with Inverclyde Academy.” As well as raising money for the charity, £450 was collected for the hard-working pupils’ end of year prom. Kiera added: “We want to thank everyone at Tesco in Greenock for allowing us to do the bag pack, especially Linda Stewart.

“We also want to thank everyone who donated money and our teachers Martin Anderson, Paul Smith, Stuart Munro and our head teacher Denise Crawford who helped out on the day.”