Hope for Africa's Noma victims

Brian Jones has flown to west Africa

A west country balloonist plans to expand his life-saving charity work in Africa.

Brian Jones co-founded Winds of Hope four years ago after circumnavigating the globe in a hot air balloon

The charity was set up with the $1m winnings, and helps children in Africa with the face-eating disease Noma.

A programme to combat 'the face of poverty' is already in place in Niger, and Mr Jones now hopes to set up a similar project in Burkina Faso.

Preventative preference

Noma kills more than 85,000 people a year, but can be stopped if it is treated in its early stages.

Mr Jones said: "There are a number of charities working in the surgical side, looking for these children and repairing their faces.

"But there was no-one working on the preventative side, and that is what we wanted to do.

"In the medium to long term - 15 to 20 years - we could actually eradicate this disease," he added.