The decorations may have been packed away, but we’ve received a very special post-Christmas boost

National charity JustHelping, which organises Christmas tree collections in aid of hospices across the UK, has made a donation of £17,500 to St Ann’s to help us support local patients.

Around 100 volunteers collected more than 1,600 trees from homes in the Stockport, Heatons, Altrincham and Hale areas, as part of a major community recycling initiative.

Members of the public could make a donation to the charity to have their tree collected, with a fifth of the total raised allocated to local charities nominated by the volunteer organisations involved in collecting the trees.  The rest was donated to us.

Clare Hinton, JustHelping’s Chief Executive, said: “We’d like to thank everyone who made a donation and to all of the amazing volunteers who made the collections possible.

“Trees were gathered over two days in early January and our volunteers included the 3^rd Hazel Grove Scouts group, Friends of John Leigh Park, the ladies from the Gossip Girls in Bramhall and Cheadle, and members of Didsbury and Bramhall Cricket club, amongst others.  It’s impossible to mention everyone by name, but we are so appreciative of all of the time and energy everyone gave to making this happen.

“JustHelping is all about communities coming together to do something amazing for local charities and hospices, and we’re thrilled that we’ve been able to do just that by raising such a huge amount of money.”

The charity gained sponsorship from Famous Henrys, Oscars Pet Food, Roost Rotisserie (Heaton Moor) and Lovell (Altrincham) which enabled the printing of leaflets and banners to promote the initiative, as well as social media promotion boosts.  Bramhall Cricket Club and Bowden Rugby Club allowed the use of their land and facilities for teams, whilst Spectrum Plant hire provided the free loan of the tree chipper, and Treework Arboricultural Services helped with chipping of the trees.

Europcar also supported the initiative with the free loan of vans for the collections, with 121 Systems of Nottingham helping with routing maps for the volunteers to collect the trees.

RF Fielding of Dean Farm, Woodford supplied the vehicles to remove the chippings and the chipped trees were taken to Dean Farm where they will be used for mulch ensuring complete recycling of the Christmas trees.

St Ann’s Chief Executive, Eamonn O’Neal, said: “As a charity that has been part of the local communities we serve for almost half a century we’re always amazed and humbled to see so many people coming together in support of our patients.

“The JustHelping tree recycling initiative has brought together many people from those local communities and we’re enormously grateful for everyone’s time and effort in raising such an amazing amount.  It will make a huge difference to our patients and their families, and we can’t thank everyone who took part or donated enough.”

JustHelping was founded in Prestbury in 2012 through philanthropic support.