A KIND-hearted boy from Adlington found a novel way to raise cash for his school library by raffling his prized football.

Tom Fletcher sold tickets to classmates to help buy books for the state-of-the-art library which is under construction at Adlington St Paul's CE Primary School, Railway Road.

The 10-year-old received a ball for his birthday earlier this month, but it was stolen from his garden.

His mum Zoe bought him a new one but then pal Matthew Swarbrick, nine, found Tom's original football and brought it back to him so year five pupil Tom decided to raffle off the new one.

He said: "We're getting a new library right next to my classroom, so when I ended up with two balls I just decided it would be nice to use one to raise some money to buy books.

"I told my mum and she came into school to talk to my teachers about it who thought it was a great idea."

Leeds United fan Tom has so far sold 300 tickets and raised £30. He will draw the raffle in assembly later this week.

He said: "Two of my classmates bought 50 tickets each and some of the teachers who bought tickets said they will give the ball back so we can use it in the playground."

The new library should be completed by the end of October.

School secretary Eileen Hart, who has helped Tom collect the money, said: "The library has been funded by the council but we have had the job of fitting it out.

"The PTA has raised some of the cash and this is a really nice thing for Tom to do.

"It's lovely that he has been so unselfish. He's a super kid."