January 27, 2020 4.56 pm This story is over 50 months old

Christmas miracle as charity raises £27k with tree recycling scheme

It is a whopping 36 times the amount that the charity collected five years ago

Louise Cotton has organised the recycling scheme.

A Christmas tree recycling scheme raised over £27,000 for a charity with a bumper year for donations.

St Barnabas Lincolnshire Hospice collected over 1,600 trees to help fund its end-of-life care for people with terminal illnesses.

The money raised year beat last year’s total by over £13,000.

It is a whopping 36 times the amount that the charity collected five years ago when they first set up the scheme.

Staff and volunteers teamed up with local businesses and people from the local community to recycle the trees from January 11.

The wood chippings generated will be used for biomass boilers, as shelter for farmyard animals or turned into BBQ charcoal.

Melissa Gaffney, St Barnabas Hospice, said: “We couldn’t have achieved this level of success without the wonderful local businesses who have donated their time, equipment and expertise to the campaign.

“I’d also like to thank members of the public who came forward to volunteer their time and help us collect Christmas trees.

“Their support has been hugely valuable and has meant that we could extend our collection locations further across Lincolnshire.”

The money raised could fund 2,150 three-course meals and blankets for patients, 1,055 mouth care kits or 526 bereavement support sessions.