An act of generosity means no birthday presents for one man but �500 for St Albans-based charity the Kashmir Deaf Children s Trust. The mystery man decided that rather than accepting the usual gifts for his birthday, he would ask for money to be donated t

An act of generosity means no birthday presents for one man but �500 for St Albans-based charity the Kashmir Deaf Children's Trust.

The mystery man decided that rather than accepting the usual gifts for his birthday, he would ask for money to be donated to the charity.

Kashmir Deaf Children's Trust (KADECT), was founded by Mohammed Akhtar in 2001. Mr Akhtar, who has a deaf daughter, is originally from Kashmir but now lives in St Albans.

He said: "This was a very generous act, as rather than accepting birthday presents from friends and family he gave that up to have money donated to us."

The charity has a shop in Hatfield Road, dedicated to raising money to set up and run schools for deaf children in Kashmir.

In 2004, KADECT started its first school in the poor village of Charhoi. It now caters, free of charge, to 24 pupils who learn to communicate using sign language, and read and write in English and Urdu.