WE used only to hear about school proms through American TV shows or perhaps a 10cc single.

But now they are now a permanent fixture in every school calendar up and down the land.

With them comes expectation and inevitably cost. And a prom dress can be very expensive.

For some families, particularly in these hard-pressed times, the cost is simply too much.

That is why the Bristol Prom Project is such a good idea.

Its founders Heidi Wood and Jan Capel have recognised that there is a growing need to help some families. Heidi knows first hand what it is like as her teenage daughter wanted a prom dress that would have cost hundreds of pounds.

Of course, these dresses are not a matter of life and death. But where teenage girls and their friends are concerned, they might as well be. It is the one night when they all want to turn heads and steal the show.

And those who come from homes where money is short should have no less right to that dream than anyone else.

Just like Fairy Godmothers, Heidi and Jan at the Bristol Prom Project are making that happen.

Reading their story, it is hard to avoid the feeling that this project was meant to be.

Particularly when you learn how Heidi and Jan became friends.

That they have launched it in the wake of Donna Mitchell's tragic death makes it all the more poignant. For she would surely approve of Heidi and Jan's efforts to help make teenage girls look their best on their big night.