UNDER-PRIVILEGED children in China are being helped to smile for the first time this Christmas by an ex-Stourport student.

WaiLo Li, 30, has raised £2,250 for 15 children's surgeries in support of international children’s medical charity Operation Smile.

Fundraising was carried out alongside volunteers of Project TOM – a non-profit group that encourages young people into charity work – which Miss Li founded in 2008.

The groups latest mission took them to Yunnan province, in China, where voluntary medical teams performed reconstructive surgery on more than 60 children with facial deformities such as cleft lip and palate – which approximately one in every 600 babies in China are born with.

Miss Li, a former Stourport High School and Sixth Form Centre pupil, said: “We are delighted to be able to support Operation Smile with their Yunnan programme, as part of our annual festive charity event in the lead-up to Christmas.

“We're pleased to have been able to help, even in such a small way.

“A big thank you to everyone who's donated and helped to change a child's life forever with a simple 45 minute surgery.”

Since 1982, Operation Smile has changed the lives of more than 30,000 children in China by providing more than 220,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lips and palates.

This year marks the sixth anniversary of Project TOM, where volunteers get together two to three times a year to fundraise and support various different charities around the world.

To date they have raised more than £42,265 for charitable causes both at home and abroad.

For more information visit project-tom.org.uk