IN the brilliant autumn sunshine, two figures stand side by side as they watch children gathering leaves. One is famous cricketer's wife and socialite Jemima Khan, the other Guisborough grandmother Hermione Youngs.

The contrast may appear stark, but the women have a common link; both work for international children's charity Unicef, and on Tuesday they joined together in London to launch its Afghanistan Crisis Leaf Appeal.

During the coming weeks, volunteers will hand out autumn leaves bearing the slogan Winter's Coming - Help Afghan Children Now. For Unicef predicts a massive humanitarian crisis in which an additional 100,000 children - on top of the annual 300,000 death rate - will perish from cold and starvation.

To Hermione, 56, their plight is only too real. Having just returned from Afghanistan, where she supervised the first aid convoy to cross into the country since the terrorist attacks on America, she has seen the suffering with her own eyes.

"Every child has a story to tell. One in four children die before they reach five years old, so all children have lost a brother or sister," she said.

Just weeks ago, Hermione was supervising the delivery of 200 metric tonnes of food, clothing and medicines on a 450km journey from Pakistan to Afghanistan. The perilous route saw her cross inhospitable passes and snow-covered peaks.

Starving refugees call her the Queen of the Donkeys, because of the final two-day part of her mission where the aid was transferred from 25 trucks to a train of 400 donkeys - the only method of negotiating a road wrecked by the Taliban.

The mother-of-three, who was born in Middlesbrough, became involved in voluntary work following the death of her husband, Keith.

Beginning with Voluntary Service Overseas, she now works for Unicef as an Afghan education officer.

Living in a three-roomed house in Badakhshan, northern Afghanistan, with no running water or electricity for the past three years, Hermoine has supervised educational convoys to remote areas of the country.

But, with the outbreak of war and the usual transport links cut off, she was asked to take food, medicine and other necessities.

Having succeeded in the mission, Hermione's main wish now is to return to her adopted homeland.

"I'm not brave," she said. "I just work in Afghanistan. It's my job and I love it."

l To make a donation, telephone Unicef on 08457 312312, or log on to the website at www.unicef.org.u