Teenage missionaries from St Antony’s Catholic College in Trafford have stepped up their fundraising drive prior to their life-changing trip to Transylvannia this July.

The Urmston church school is taking a party of 15 students, supervised by three staff for what has become one of the highlight’s of the calendar.

Children are expected to raise £350 and their parents £100 to fund the trip with all additional money going to buy essential educational materials for the series of Romanian schools and orphanages they will visit in some of the most remote and poorest parts of Europe.

Tom Murphy, St Antony’s Head of Religious Education, who organises the trip, said: “The Romania Project was initially set up in 2009 and is becoming an established part of our school calendar.

“The project’s aim is to try and bring some happiness and light to the lives of orphaned and poverty stricken children in the poorest parts of Romania.

“The Romania Project travels to Sibiu for seven days and visits different Romanian orphanages and the poorest surrounding villages. We hand out charitable donations to the poorest village children, such as toothbrushes, socks, pens, and old football shirts which people have kindly given to us to take over there.

“It is an emotional, life-changing experience for both the St Antony’s pupils and the orphans who we reach out to in Romania.

“We try to make a difference to these lonely, forgotten children and leave the children with memories which will last a lifetime. This experience changes our pupils’ outlook on life and is adding to the development of caring/compassionate future citizens”.

This year the party will travel out on July 9 and return on July 16 but already the students have been busy raising all the cash possible.

Megan Smith, 14, from Stretford, has already accumulated £523.

Megan said: “Older students who have been in the past say it is one of the most incredible experiences of their lives and I just hope I can make a difference.”