AS PAULA Augar struggled to refill the oxygen tank she now relies on for 15 hours a day, her 14-year-old son George wanted to do something to help.

So, with best friend Oscar Poole, 14, the teenagers came up with a way to raise cash for a piece of equipment that would mean Mrs Augar, who suffers from scoliosis – or curvature of the spine – could go outside without carrying a cumbersome oxygen cylinder.

This month the Burford School pupils finished the final leg of a 50-mile walk along the Ridgeway, which they did in three stages over three weekends, raising £1,000.

George, of Mercury Close, Bampton, said: “It was tiring but it feels good as we did it for a good cause.”

Although Mrs Augar, 47, was born with scoliosis, which affects the lungs, the condition has only recently deteriorated to the extent that she needed heavy oxygen equipment to be installed and would need to be hooked up to an oxygen tank for 15 hours a day.

She now has a tank in her garden, which she uses to re-fill cylinders that she must take out and about with her.

After some research, Mrs Augar, a teacher at Our Lady’s Primary School, in Cowley, Oxford, found that there is a portable oxygen concentrator – a much lighter and less noticeable alternative – but found it was not available on the NHS and cost £3,000.

She said: “When all the equipment arrived in the house, my son George said, ‘This isn’t good enough, there must be better technology than this’.”

George and Oscar were helped by Oscar’s mum Samantha Poole, who said: “George and Oscar have done really well. I am proud of them, it’s not the usual teenage behaviour.”

Oscar said: “We were originally going to walk to Wales, but that was not feasible so we decided not to do that and George’s mum came up with the idea of walking the Ridgeway.

“The first one we did, it hurt my feet and they became very blistered. £1,000 is a lot of money and if it can help Paula get her breathing machine it’s brilliant.”

Mrs Augar’s 11-year-old daughter Ruby also ran a craft stall in the playground of Bampton Primary School to raise more money for the equipment.

Mrs Augar said: “The oxygen concentrator would give me more freedom to get out and about, without having to carry a heavy tank. “It’s going to be horrible to go out in the garden to re-fill the cylinders from the tank when it’s snowing or raining – it would just make life a lot easier.”