A SCHOOL play inspired by The Westmorland Gazette’s Gift of Life organ donor campaign is to be shown to thousands of pupils across the country.

A-level drama students at Queen Katherine School, Kendal, created the play after reading in the Gazette about the shortage of organ donors.

They decided to explore the issue further through theatre and came up with a short play Waiting.

It was initially created for a one-off school performance but will now reach a wider audience after being picked up by TV channel ITV.

Impressed with the students’ passion for the cause, producers at ITV asked pupils if they could film the play for their news programmes and a DVD for other schools.

The students make their appearance on ITV Border and Granada news tonight, as part of the ITV Fixers feature, which shows young people doing something good for their community.

Caroline Barber, head of drama, said: “It’s fantastic news.

"The play is entirely the students’ own work and it’s great that it’s going to go to another audience.

“They’ve really learned a lot about the filming process too and how performing for TV is different to theatre.”

Cast member Kayleigh Fairhurst, 17, of Kendal, said: “It’s really nice to think that our play will be used to teach other children about the importance of signing the organ donor register.

"Filming was brilliant, they used smoke machines and amazing lighting, so we’re looking forward to seeing it on TV.”

TV crews will return to the school in February to film more of the play for the educational DVD which will then be distributed to sch-ools in the north.

Joanna Gretton, ITV Fixers producer, said: “We were really impressed with QKS students for getting behind such an important cause and trying to promote it to their community.

"We loved the play and they are clearly an extremely talented group of young people.”

The Gift of Life organ donor campaign aims to tackle the huge shortage of donors in the region and has encouraged 2,948 people in the area to sign up since its launch in May.

* Watch QKS on Granada and Border news tonight on ITV at 6.15pm.