A SOUTH Lakes family has raised more than £5,500 for charity by living on £1 a day for five days.

Julian Lambton, his wife Vanda and daughter Georgina decided to ‘Live Below the Line’ for a week to raise money for ‘Street Child’ – a UK-based charity which works with children in Sierra Leone.

With just £1 per person, per day as their entire food and drink budget, the Cartmel Fell family spent five days living off porridge for breakfast, soup and a banana for lunch and a bowl of pasta and sauce for tea.

The £1 figure, calculated by the World Bank, equates to what someone living in ‘extreme poverty’ in the UK would have to manage on.

Georgina, now a trainee teacher in Bradford, volunteered for Street Child in Sierra Leone in 2011.

Julian, a rural surveyor and partner at Carter Jonas in Kendal, and more used to spending £5 on lunch and being offered tea and cake as he visits farms and estates in the area, said it had been ‘challenging’.

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“It is possible to eat enough for £1 per day, but it was pretty dull and I suspect not nutritious enough as we were all very tired by the end of the week,” he said.

“On the no list were the many things we all take for granted – meat, jam, butter, eggs, coffee and fruit.

“And we didn’t lose any weight, a couple of pounds at most.

“It was a most thought-provoking few days and we can now well understand why some parents choose to give their children the best possible food available on their budget and go hungry themselves. Struggling to feed yourself and your family is not just an issue for developing countries either – we have three food banks within a 15-mile radius of where we live.”

Until June 15 every penny raised for Street Child will also be matched by the UK government.

Anyone wishing to make a donation should visit www.justgiving.com/lambton.