Longfield Hospice collects more than 3,000 Christmas trees

A hospice has said its Christmas tree recycling service to help support the care it offers has been a big success.

For a voluntary donation, people around Gloucestershire have had their trees taken away by volunteers from Longfield Community Hospice in Minchinhampton.

Every year trees are taken to recycling sites where they are turned into a multi-purpose mulch.

So far more than 3,000 trees have been collected in four days, with thousands of pounds raised for hospice care.

Fundraising Manager for the charity, Kirsty Murray, said it had been a successful operation.

"So far, so good, touch wood!" she said.

"It's a bit of a secret at the moment but we've raised more this year. Last year we raised just under £50,000 which is a huge amount of money to raise for hospice care."

Ms Murray said a lot more trees had also been collected this year.

"We have had a team of 174 volunteers out over the past four days collecting 3,742 Christmas trees.

"We've got about an extra 800 to collect this year on last year."

The annual Christmas tree collection is the charity's biggest fundraiser and enables Longfield to provide hospice care throughout the year.

Ms Murray praised the volunteers for getting involved saying: "We couldn't do this without them".

Twenty-four crews are now collecting the last of the trees waiting for recycling. The trees will be taken to Painswick Rococo Garden and to Highfield Garden World in Whitminster, where they will be chipped and turned into mulch.

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