PHILANTHROPIST Niall Mellon has raised his ambitions for this year’s South African township building blitz by 25% despite the downturn in the construction industry.

HEARTACHE proved a lot more painful than backache for the Irish volunteers who toiled for seven days to ensure 1,500 South Africans’ lives have been changed forever.

UNDER the peaceful pose of a special statue of St Christopher, Lesar Rule can now sleep in her own house for the first time.

THIS morning three chartered jumbo jets took off from Dublin, and one from Shannon, to ferry an army of tradesmen and volunteers for a week-long building frenzy in Africa.