Charity bid in boys' memory.

Byline: By Matt Casey 

Staff at a school which has lost two teenagers to cancer have launched a fund-raising campaign in their memory.

Ian Hall, 15, and Simon Warren, 17, pupils at the Hermitage School in Chester-le-Street, were struck down by the disease in the past year.

Ian, of Millfield Close, Chester-le-Street, died on November 21 last year after enduring chemotherapy and radiotherapy for a brain tumour.

His mother, Carole, who was diagnosed with breast cancer four years previously, died in August 2003.

Simon's death only weeks ago has devastated friends and staff at the school. Headteacher Ian Robertson said: "Such a double tragedy in a single school year is, thankfully, a rare occurrence ( but it has stirred us into action."

As part of National Bike 2 Work Week, he is cycling to and from the Hermitage School from his home in Richmond, North Yorkshire.

Having tried the 80-mile round trip earlier this week on a test run, setting off at around 5am, he got back in the saddle last Thursday to repeat the journey to raise money for leukaemia research.

Assistant head Malcolm Davidson cycled to school from his home in Stocksfield ( as he has done every day this week ( and the six-strong PE department cycled into work from Bardon Mill. Even those who are not cyclists are playing their part in raising money.

The sixth-form tutor team are "power walking" a distance of three miles and a number of staff are running the equivalent distance of the Great North Run.

Mr Robertson, 44, said: "Sponsored by friends, parents and fellow staff members, we hope to raise as much money as possible to help combat the evils that took away those we knew so well".