A BUSINESSWOMAN is calling on the help of sweet-toothed Ryedale residents to help her go bananas at an orang-utan orphanage in Borneo.

Co-owner of Helmsley’s Traditional Sweet Shop, Lynn Hempsall, is leaving on a self-funded month-long trip to Borneo on June 4 to offer a helping hand at the Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre in Ketapang.

To help raise desperately needed funds for the charity, the Traditional Sweet Shop is now selling bags of Bananas for Budi, full of the popular yellow foam sweets.

The sweets cost £1.50 per bag and the whole amount will be donated to the orphanage. There will also be a competition to guess the number of sweets in a jar on May 28 and 29, with the nearest guess winning the whole jar of goodies.

The sanctuary teaches orphaned baby orang-utans how to be adults and is run by International Animal Rescue.

Budi was one baby orang-utan that arrived at the centre at the beginning of the year critically ill after losing his mother. With the intensive care of the sanctuary team he is ready for rehabilitation with the hope to release him back into a safe area.

Wild orang-utans are depleting in numbers due to the logging and deforestation of their habitat for the production of cheap palm oil - found in many daily food items, make up and cleaning products.

Ms Hempsall, 55, said: "When we set the sweet shop up we were careful in the selection of suppliers we worked with, as it is important to us that the majority of sweets we sell are produced in the traditional manner and don’t rely on palm oil.

“Wherever possible we use long-standing manufacturers along with up and coming artisan businesses that use local ingredients that are ethically produced.”

For more information visit www.visithelmsley.co.uk, www.facebook.com/visithelmsley or @visithelmsley. Lynn hopes to tweet about her travels @Lynn_Sweeties.