JULIA FORDHAM - FORDHAM GETS A HELPING HAND FROM BRANSON

LATEST: British singer JULIA FORDHAM's efforts to raise cash for a devastated Indian school district have been given a boost by VIRGIN boss SIR RICHARD BRANSON.

The pregnant singer has released a new version of her 1988 hit HAPPY EVER AFTER - which she originally recorded with school children in Sussex, England - in a bid to raise funds to rebuild a school flattened by the southeast Asia tsunami in December (04).

And after hearing about her efforts, Branson has stepped forward to prominently display the single in his Virgin Megastores and make sure that cash from them goes directly to Fordham's ROUND TABLE charity.

She says, "He's a saint. Richard is truly supporting the project and is now selling the CD single. That's a huge boost."

Fordham has further been encouraged by the news that the Ashington School pupils who appear on the reworked single have set up an ongoing cultural link with schoolchildren at the Panchayat Elementary Union School in Tamil Nadu, India, which is being rebuilt from the money raised from the charity single.