A SECONDARY school is appealing for the community to help some of their pupils, left in financial dire straits after their mother was severely injured in a road accident abroad.

Jasmin Yeasin, 13, her brother Mohammed Ismail, 15, and their older brother Mohammed Yeasin, 18 are struggling to make ends meet, to the point where staff at Carlton Bolling College have had to give them small amounts of cash to get by.

The school has now asked if anyone can help the family in their time of need.

The family is originally from Burma, but moved to Bangladesh to escape the fighting there when Mohammed was a baby. Five years ago they moved to Bradford. The children's father, Dil Mohammed, died 14 years ago

Over the summer, their mother Mahfuza Khatun was in a car accident while on a trip to Bangladesh to see her sick mother, and suffered spinal injuries. She did not have travel insurance for the trip, and faced soaring bills for her medical treatment.

The first hospital she was treated in cost between £600 and £1,000 a night, and although she was eventually transferred to a cheaper hospital, even that cost her family £200 a day.

Her specialist medical flight home last month cost more than £7,000. She is now in intensive care in Pinderfield Hospital in Wakefield where she is making a slow recovery.

Family friends and members of the local community loaned the family money to pay for the hospital care, but with most of the family's benefits in her name, her children are struggling not just to re-pay these loans but to also to find enough food and day to day essentials.

Her eldest son, who wants to become an apprentice, is getting only £57 a week in benefits, and although the Department of Works and Pensions is working on giving him access to his mother's benefits, it has said it would take some time for this to be sorted.

He said they were not familiar with travel insurance until it was too late. He added: "We've been everywhere for help but we have struggled. We're really struggling without our mother, especially my sister.

"Our mother is improving, but it is going to take a long time.

"We didn't know about travel insurance until after the accident.

"If anyone could help us it would be a huge favour."

The school was told of the family's plight by a health visitor working with the family, who told them they had no food. The school has hled a fundraising day for the family which raised £500.

Janet Dunn, the head teacher's assistant, said: "Muhammed is doing a fantastic job looking after the family, and his brother and sister haven't missed a day of school, despite what they've been through."

Anyone who wants to help the family can contact the school on 01274 633111 or email j.dunn@carltonbolling.co.uk.

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