A couple who cancelled their Sri Lankan holiday days before the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami have helped rebuild a devastated tourist resort.

Claire Cater, 42, and Nigel Ryan, 48, from Ardingly, have helped raise £500,000 since the disaster.

They plan to mark the second anniversary of the tidal wave by opening a "creation centre" which should rejuvenate the economy in the village of Hikkaduwa.

The centre, which includes community facilities and a computer room, will allow performing artistes from around the world to work with the villagers in regenerating tourism.

The couple have already helped fund a school, medical centre, dozens of homes and 148 fishing boats.

Two years ago they were due to travel to Hikkaduwa, where their friends own a beach hotel, but Claire's mother fell ill and they cancelled the trip.

Days later hotel guests, many of them the couple's friends, were running for their lives into the jungle as the tidal wave struck. They had been given a few minutes' warning by the hotel manager.

Miraculously, none of the staff or guests was killed but across the region thousands lost their lives. Homes, community buildings and boats - the lifeblood of local industry - were destroyed.

Appalled by the devastation, friends of Claire and Nigel stayed in the resort for up to a year to help in any way they could.

In the UK, the couple, who own The Gallery in High Street, Lindfield, organised an auction of artwork and celebrity items including Chris Eubank's motorbike and Norman Cook's sofa.

It raised £15,000 and helped spark the creation of an official charity called the Hikkaduwa Area Relief Fund, with fund-raisers spread all over the world.

Claire said: "We have raised in the region of £500,000. Within days there were 41 of us around the world raising money. In an area where you can rebuild a fisherman's house with £500 to £750, the sum of £500,000 is like millions of pounds."

She said no official support arrived in Hikkaduwa for weeks and many villagers only survived because of the help of volunteers. She said: "If we had not done what we have done, people would have starved. We were supplying rice ourselves, getting people to carry it in trucks.

"We have rebuilt the community. We bought 148 fishing boats, which support that side of the coast.

"One boat sustains up to 100 people. We had to rebuild homes on the beach, the local medical centre - and we made it better. We rebuilt the school and we set up the first ambulance service and lifeguard service because people were worried about going on the beach.

"We have restored something like 30-odd businesses. We have helped to regenerate the orphanage. They needed everything from new beds to fresh linen."

The work was carried out in partnership with the city of Glasgow, which the charity persuaded to sponsor Hikkaduwa.

Claire said it was "very humbling" how the villagers had helped tourists in the aftermath of the disaster, even though they had, in many cases, lost everything.

She urged people from Sussex to help by returning as tourists and, when making donations, to check where the money was going. She said: "People have lost whole families and need long-term support."

She will travel to Hikkaduwa on Saturday with her son Jasper, eight, and her sister, Patricia Spayne, 59, from Hampshire, to attend the opening of the creation centre.

To find out more about the Hikkaduwa Area Relief Fund, visit www.sunbeachsurf.com.

A tsunami survivor is angry that money promised by governments around the world to help people affected by the disaster has still not materialised.

Melanie Rees, 43, of Clarendon Villas, Hove, said it was shocking nations had failed to honour financial pledges to help rebuild communities destroyed by the wave.

Ms Rees, a former headteacher, was at a beach hotel in Phuket, Thailand, when the tsunami struck.

Like many survivors, she was affected by post-traumatic stress and does still not feel ready to talk in detail about her experiences.

To mark the second anniversary of the disaster, she appealed for people around the world to hold governments to account for the donations they pledged in the immediate aftermath.

She said: "I am really disappointed to hear reports that much of the money which was donated has yet to be spent, that countries who offered haven't given that money and that people who lost their homes two years ago are still living in very poor conditions. That saddens me.

"It was the biggest natural disaster in the last 40 years. I hope it has given a lot of people thought about how much we have here. We don't know we're born."