THEY may look like ordinary schoolchildren, but these kids are lifesavers.

Pupils at Fir Tree School in Wallingford raised thousands of pounds to help install a defibrillator for their whole community.

While the rest of the country was voting in the General Election on June 8, they were pounding the school fields in a testing 5km sponsored run.

Thanks to generous friends and family they raised more than £2,500 and, earlier this month, they presented a cheque to county councillor for the town Lynda Atkins.

She will use the money to buy a life-saving defibrillator for the town's Bullcroft park.

The children are pictured here handing over the cheque to Ms Atkins, along with Jodie Smart from the Heart of Wallingford campaign and former South Central Ambulance Service commander Dick Tracey, who has campaigned for years to get more public-access defibrillators across Oxfordshire.

They are also pictured with the defibrillator which is already on the side of their school, which partly inspired their sponsored run.

Headteacher Nilofer Khan, also pictured above, explained the story began when Ms Atkins asked the school if she could put a defib on their building.

Ms Khan explained: "She asked if we would have this defib so it would be available for the community here – the surrounding roads, and of course we said yes.

"When we had it fitted on the school in February, Lynda said they wanted to raise money to put another defib on the Bullcroft.

"I looked at the kids and said 'what do you think?' and they said 'we can raise the money'."

Specifically, it was the school council, made up of representatives from each class, which began planning the fundraising foray.

The Year 6s, having recently been on a junior citizens first aid course through school, knew all about how defibrillators worked, and helped explain to the others.

They settled on holding a sponsored run at the school on June 8.

That also happened to be during National Diabetes Week and, because one of the pupils involved has the condition, they decided to raise some money for that cause as well.

When the big day came the run was a huge success. Not just children but parents, teachers, and even Ms Atkins joined in the fun, running or walking around the school.

When they tallied up the total – about £2,500 – they decided to give £1,400 to Ms Atkins and the rest to Diabetes UK.

Ms Khan said: "Wallingford is this school's community and we are a community school.

"Giving children a sense of pride and community spirit to raise money for something used in the community and for the community – you couldn't ask for more."