STUDENTS heading home from Oxford for the summer are being urged to raid their wardrobes and donate unwanted bits and bobs to fund life-saving research.

The Pack for Good campaign is calling on students across the city to gift items they would otherwise ditch to the British Heart Foundation.

It comes after almost 6,000 bags of unwanted belongings donated by students helped raise £88,000 for the charity last year, thanks to the annual campaign.

City councillor for St Clement's Tom Hayes said he was pleased the scheme was returning for the fifth year, with two temporary donation banks popping up in his ward.

He said the easy-to-reach recycling spots helped ensure students did not abandon belonging on pavements, which previously prompted a slew of complaints from residents.

The councillor added: "I’m delighted that the old problem of students moving out and blocking pavements is disappearing.

"I’m even more delighted that students are using this convenient service to raise more money for research into cardiovascular disease - the UK’s single biggest killer - much of which will be spent making life-saving discoveries here in Oxford."

The charity teamed up with Oxford University, Oxford City Council and Oxford Brookes University to encourage students to donate items at the end of term.

Bright red temporary British Heart Foundation donation banks for clothing, textiles, books and bric-a-brac will sit in Botley Road, East Avenue, Grays Road and Morrell Avenue, as well as Magdalen Road Church, until August 2.

Donations will provide 'vital stock' for the charity's shops found across the county, with profits raised supporting its battle to end heart disease.

Students, as well as staff, are being called on to donate their gladrags, shoes, accessories, kitchen gadgets and gizmos and books, along with CDs, DVDs and small electrical items including hairdryers and straighteners.

Oxford University has been awarded £14.4m from the charity since 2008, to establish its Centre of Research Excellence where a team studies cardiovascular disease.

The centre also provides training for young researchers, including Jemma Hopewell, of Oxford University's Nuffield Department of Population Health.

Prof Hopewell, who leads a research programme in genetic epidemiology and clinical trial-based studies surrounding cardiovascular disease, said: "Financial support from the British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence continues to be extremely influential in my career development and in the progress of my research programme."

The charity said 7m people in the UK are living with cardiovascular disease - a general term for conditions affecting the heart or blood vessels.