FROM a first aid doll to a Zimmer frame and from a pair of bongos to a woman's thong.

Absent-minded passengers are leaving some strange items on board Hampshire coaches.

Now bosses at a Fareham travel firm have decided to put dozens of wild and wonderful bits of lost property to good use.

Lucketts Travel is donating funds raised through the return of lost property items to help victims of the tsunami in south-east Asia.

In line with government regulations, the company charges everyone who retrieves their lost property £2 an item.

All funds raised will now be donated to the charities spearheading the relief effort - the Red Cross and Oxfam.

Any goods which remain unclaimed after a month and are suitable for resale will also be given to the charities to sell in their shops.

Lucketts' operations assistant Martin Wotherspoon said: "We do get a lot of items left on coaches, particularly mobile phones and cameras.

"As far as possible we try to return them to their owners. I recently had to post a digital camera to its owner in Paris.

"The most unusual item we have had lately was a Resusci Anne first aid training dummy, which was left in a holdall in the overhead luggage area by someone from an Army cadet corps.

"Other recent finds have included a Zimmer frame, a violin, a portable DVD player and two bottles of champagne.

"We have always given the proceeds to charity and decided that this year it should be used to help organisations working to help victims of the tsunami."

The family-run firm, established 80 years ago, operates a fleet of coaches catering for everything from day trips to holidays across Europe.