Big Curry raised big bucks for two charities when special events were held at a Harpenden school last week.

St George’s School in Sun Lane hopes to have raised £30,000 for ABF The Soldiers’ Charity and Medecins sans Frontieres from their Big Curry event and Great Curry Run.

Over the last few years St George’s has become the single largest Big Curry supporter for The Soldiers’ Charity. Since 2011, the school has raised £140,000 from the Big Curry event and this year for the first time, it is also donating money for Medecins sans Frontieres.

An estimated 1,000 curry lunches were prepared and sold by the school catering department last Thursday. Students and staff were joined by detachments from the 4th Battalion, The Rifles, along with the The Parachute Regiment to give an insight into their varied experiences of service life.

The band of the Parachute Regiment led a workshop for members of the school orchestra before a joint concert late in the day.

On Saturday morning, 500 people pounded local pavements in the fifth annual sponsored “Great Curry Run”, choosing five, 10 or 15km routes.

St George’s Deputy Head Paddy Storrie, explained, “The needs of our servicemen and women wounded in Afghanistan continue - and they may need visible support even more now they are out of the public eye.

“However, we also want to be minded that some of the toughest life-saving work is being done in war zones by neutral charities who put people on the ground in places that the forces cannot or will not go, or would not be sufficient.”

He added: With places like Syria and West Africa very much in need, this seemed a good year to extend our focus to Medecins Sans Frontieres.”