WHEN best friends Zanna Gaydon and Olivia Stevens found out that pupils in Uganda did not learn under a school roof, they took action.

The nine-year-old Cumnor Primary School pupils organised a fundraising three-mile canoe journey to raise £400 to build a roof for charity Helping Hands.

On Saturday, they paddled for three miles along the Thames by Filchampstead.

Zanna, from Farmoor, said: “Our school raised money for the classroom but there was no roof, so me and Olivia wanted to raise money.

“I’m very proud of myself because I have never been three miles in a canoe before.”

The money will pay for half the roof, with Zanna and Olivia hoping to raise the rest of the cash after the summer.

Zanna said: “We were thinking of putting blindfolds on for a whole day and going to school.”