£12,000 boost for Trinity Hospice funds '“ thanks to Christmas trees

The service was extended this year to cover the FY8 postcode as well as further areas of Blackpool after bring intropduced last year in FY1 and FY2 – and Trinity officials have been delighted at the response.

Trees were collected from some 1,400 venues from which trees by more than 80 volunteers and as each tree was collected, householders were asked to make a donation to Trinity.

The total raised was £12,072 - more than quadruple the £3,000 generated last year and far more than expected.

Trinity’s corporate fundraiser Janet Atkins said: “We couldn’t have wished for a more successful tree collection – it has raised such an amazing amount of money.

“To raise more than £12,000 is just fantastic and more than double what we had hoped to raise.

“Our heartfelt thanks to every single person involved – from all those who gave up their weekend to help with the collections, to the companies and councils who lent us vans and support, and to everyone who booked their tree collection and made a generous donation.

“This money goes straight to making sure everyone across Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre has access to the best palliative and end-of-life care, wherever they chose to receive it.”

The discarded trees, along with hundreds more deposited at Fylde Council collection points, will be planted in the dunes by Fylde Council staff and volunteers from Tuesday, January 29 to Thursday, January 31.

The planting, north of St Annes, is part of an ongoing project to trap windblown sand and encourage the dunes to move seaward and volunteers are invited to go along to North Beach between 10am and 3pm each day.

Fylde Council leader Sue Fazackerley said: “This is a win-win-win situation. Residents are having the convenience of having their trees taken away; Trinity Hospice, which we all support, is benefitting from the donation people make for this service and the dunes restoration project is being boosted by the influx of redundant Christmas trees. An excellent example of the benefits of recycling.”