A Garston grandfather has completed his third annual sponsored bike ride between London and Paris to raise funds to pay the school fees of children in an orphanage in southern India.

Kish Poddar, a science teacher at Stanborough Secondary School in Garston, founded STOP International in 2001 to help improve the lives of children in orphanages in Tamil Nadu state.

He undertakes the 262-mile sponsored cycle rides to raise the funds to pay the annual school fees for children in one of the orphanages.

Accompanied by a support vehicle with driver and two cooks, including his wife Sonia, he set off from Tower Bridge with friends Ricardo Wright and Ravindran Bassi.

The journey went well until Paris, where Mr Poddar said help came from an unexpected source.

He said: "The riders had planned to meet up with the support vehicle at the Eiffel Tower so cycled following the mapped out route.

"With the road works in Paris the planned route became superfluous. Asking directions helped somewhat but the riders were a good 10km from the Eiffel Tower.

"It was at this point when two young French boys, not more than 11 years old, who were out on bikes for their day off school, recognised our dilemma and offered to show us the way to the tower by riding in front of us while we followed.

"Keeping up was a challenge as they were more familiar with the back street route than we were. They led us to the Arc de Triomphe where we took photographs and then set off along Kleber Avenue to the Eiffel Tower.

"Our two little escorts became a few pounds better off that day. When told to exchange the sterling for euros they declined saying they were going to keep them as souvenirs."

A trip to India is planned during the school summer holiday to present the cheque to the orphanage staff to pay for the children's school fees for the next academic year.