February 22, 2001 10:04: IN the shadow of the pharaohs, children are abandoned. Their plight has touched the hearts of a Great Kingshill couple. MICHELLE FLEMING reports.

Brenda and Phillip Bratherton were exploring the back streets of the Egyptian city of Luxor when they were drawn towards a dilapidated building, fronted by a sign which read Sunshine Project.

Their curiosity roused, the pair knocked on the door, unaware that what was about to unfold would alter the course of their lives.

"We feel we were somehow meant to find the home,' smiles Brenda, 54. "As we got ready to leave after our first meeting we pledged to return.

"A cold shiver went down my back as I took down the home's address, 371 Television Street. We knew that fate had dealt us a sure hand as we walked back to room 371 at the Hilton Hotel."

Their work is helping carve the lives of orphaned children more than 2,500 miles from home and now the couple are asking Free Press readers to help find a wheelchair for one of the home's disabled residents.

Sunshine Project was set up six years ago by Pearl Smith, a florist from Coventry who, like the Brathertons, was on holiday in the popular Egyptian city.

She was so affected by the plight of abandoned children who roamed the streets that she sold her house and business and dedicated her life to looking after them.

Mama Pearl, as she is fondly called by the children in her care, now looks after 23 children and depends on people like the Brathertons to raise awareness of the daily battles she faces as legal guardians of so many children.

The Brathertons have built up a strong friendship with Pearl and now devote most of their spare time plotting new fundraising ideas and writing letters to the children.

"Most people who go there for a holiday do not see the darker side of Luxor," says Brenda.

"To have a baby outside wedlock over there is simply not accepted and often the innocent kids are abandoned in sugar-cane fields or left on rubbish sites."

Three-year-old Mohammed was taken into Pearl's care when he was just three months old.

Police were alerted when a passenger found him in a zipped sports bag on the Cairo to Aswan express train, his young body tired and dehydrated.

Aware of Pearl's work with abandoned children, police took him to the Sunshine Project.

"To see Mohammed now one would never believe he could have faced such a cruel fate," says Brenda.

"He's now a bright-eyed boy full of energy."

Brenda and Phillip, a security officer at Piper's Corner School, have so far raised more than £5,000 for the children and are planning another visit this April, when they will take over as many toys and other goods as they can manage.

"The kids have touched us so much we plan to go over and help any holiday time we get," says Brenda.

Egyptair offered them unlimited baggage space when it heard of their plans, so now the pressure is on to make the most of the opportunity.

"We would be over the moon if someone could give us a wheelchair to take over.

"They are very expensive and difficult to come by over there and the difference it will make to one boy's quality of life is beyond words," added Brenda.

Pupils at Pipers Corner School have also taken a huge interest in the lives of the children.

Headteacher Valerie Stattersfield said: "The project has certainly caught the imagination of the girls here at Pipers, and we are delighted to support it."

Daughters Lorna Clayden and Ruth Bratherton, joined in when they accompanied Brenda on a ten-mile walk from their home to Missenden Abbey and back last May.

"Some of the girls from the school joined in on our return journey," said Brenda. "It was hard but the £2,500 we raised will go a long way.

"What's important is being able to offer these kids a real chance. We are in a position to do this and with the help of others, we could alter the lives and futures of these little angels."

The couple next travel to Egypt on April 9.

Michelle Fleming