Christmas trees collected across Chester and Ellesmere Port have brought in a huge £10,000 boost to the Hospice of the Good Shepherd.

Vans and volunteers from the Backford based charity spent a week driving around parts of Cheshire West collecting 947 real Christmas trees from people’s doorsteps to support families with a life-limiting illness.

Residents made a donation for the service which saved them a trip to the skip, raising £10,100 for the hospice.

The Christmas tree recycling was run with the support of local volunteers and businesses to raise much needed funds for the hospice.

Residents signed up online to arrange for their tree to be collected and recycled in return for a donation with the ‘extremely successful event’ collecting nearly double the amount of trees than last year.

Chester's Hospice of the Good Shepherd raised £10,100 through its Christmas tree collection scheme
Chester's Hospice of the Good Shepherd raised £10,100 through its Christmas tree collection scheme

Justin Caroe, community fundraiser at the hospice, said: “It was amazing and overwhelming how much support we received this year.

“This idea allowed people to get all the pleasure from having a real tree without the annoying bit of taking it to the recycling centre after Christmas and stuffing it in the back of the car when all the needles are dropping off.”

He added: “The average donation ended up being around £10 per tree and people were also so generous with their time volunteering for the service and loaning vans.

“Without people donating money through schemes such as our tree collection we wouldn’t be able to carry on providing our services to local people in the community affected by a life limiting illness.”

The hospice also made special mention of businesses and Ellesmere Port Lions who donated money for van hire.

It will be providing the service again this year and is hoping to collect even more trees. Information on the collection date and registration will be available in December.

The hospice receives only around a quarter of its annual £4m running costs from the NHS and provides services totally free costing £11,000 a day.