Fitting legacy to city star

Fifteen years ago, Fred Ssemmanda was eating ants from the floor of his mud hut home!

Today, he’s pouring his energies into making sure other children have a better start to life than he did.

What is remarkable about his story, already full of amazing twists and turns, is the spark that ignited his charitable passion ... a Sunderland born agony aunt!

Denise Robertson touched the lives of millions through her work as a TV agony aunt on This Morning, but perhaps her greatest legacy is her charity work.

She wasn’t short of advice for those who contacted her on the popular breakfast show, but her charity work often went unnoticed.

Not so her trip to Uganda in 2004 when she found orphan brothers Fred and Emmanuel Ssemmanda in squalid conditions.

As we reveal today, Denise, with the help of Lisa Seferi, raised money and built a home for the brothers in the village of Rakai.

The links formed that day were strong, but few could have guessed how they would grow and flourish. Fred, now 24, set up the Denise Foundation Uganda, which now helps less fortunate children in memory of Denise and with the support of Lisa, the owner of Pure Bliss beauty spa in Sea Road, Fulwell.

Fifteen years later and the fundraising good work doesn’t stop.

A recent charity ball raised more than £15,000 with the cash used to build three shallow wells to provide villages with clean, safe drinking water.

If this story tells us anything, it’s that a little good can go a long long way.

Denise was a friend of the Echo and star in her community. What a fitting legacy to a local hero.