A furniture company based in North Yorkshire is continuing to pump huge amounts of money into a vital project in Africa.

A cheque for £110,000 which was handed over yesterday, brings the total raised for Oxfam by Tomlinson Antiques, of Tockwith, to a whopping half-a-million pounds.

More than 25,000 people have benefited from clean drinking water thanks to the generosity of the firm, which employs 90 people and has an annual turnover of £10 million.

"The whole company has got behind the project and is committed to it and we feel we have made a real difference," said company director Simon Bowyer.

80 wells which supply clean drinking water to 40 villages in northern Ghana and health education for local people have been funded by the firm.

Now women no longer have to walk up to four miles a day to fetch water.

Updated: 09:22 Tuesday, April 10, 2001