NINE teenagers who went on a 24-hour starve-in to buy a new bed for the Churchill Hospital got their just reward in tea, cakes and lemonade.

The hospital staff laid on a tea party before officially receiving a cheque for £250 to buy a specialised bed for the neurology unit in July 1976.

The money collected by the 14 to 16-year-olds in a night and day of hunger last month was well above their target –£198 for an ordinary hospital bed.

With nine other members of the Stonesfield Youth Club and club leader Ginger West, the teenagers were locked up in Stonesfield Village Hall, where no food could reach them.

They were sponsored for each hour of the 24-hour fast and one boy, 15-year-old Martin Pauling of Combe Road, Stonesfield, raised £63.64 on his own.