ONE of Britain's most popular TV personalities launched a Swindon fundraising campaign for the NSPCC and told how the deaths of two small babies inspired him to help vulnerable children.

Think of a Number host Johnny Ball described how, as a 19-year-old working for Social Services in Liverpool, he had to deal with families who did not know how to look after their infants.

He was speaking at the at the NSPCC charity launch at Zurich's business centre in Station Road.

"I was there for 15 months and on three occasions I found babies who were suffering badly because the parents obviously could not cope.

"On two of them, by the time I was able to report the case, the baby had died."

Johnny, who married former Stratton St Margaret dancer Dianne Hicks in 1976 at Bath Road Methodist Church, has agreed to be patron of the NSPCC's Swindon and North Wilts 110 Challenge.

It marks the local branch's 110th anniversary, which falls this year.

"I was working in one of the roughest parts of Liverpool and I was there for 15 months," he said.

"But I cried when I left it. I had seen whole families suffering and children getting the brunt of it because people couldn't help themselves."

Johnny said that the NSPCC, which relies on donations and voluntary fundraising for 85 per cent of its budget, had a vital role to play.

Last year 311 children were placed on the Swindon and Wiltshire Child Protection Registers.

His appeal was supported by successful businesswoman and former nurse Deborah Fern, an NSPCC trustee who lives in Derbyshire.

She gave the charity £1.25m after discovering that her second husband had systematically beaten up her older daughter, Charlotte, who is now 21.

She also has a younger daughter, Victoria, aged 19. "Charlotte was seven when the abuse started and it went on for 18 months," she said.

"She said when we get rich mum can we give some money to the NSPCC'?"

Swindon and North Wilts branch chairman Sue Hooper appealed to local people to organise fundraising projects this year based on the figure 110.

"In Swindon we need to find people who are willing to organise events for us," she said.

To find out how you can help the NSPCC appeal email swindon110@nspcc.org.uk or call Sue on 01793 530912 to volunteer.