Longfield Community Hospice has raised more than £49,292 income with its recent Christmas tree recycling scheme.

Staff at the Minchinhampton-based hospice hosted a celebration evening on 1 February as a way of thanking everybody who had volunteered and helped with this eco-friendly fundraising campaign.

Volunteers for the hospice collected nearly 3,000 trees from households across Stroud, Cirencester, and Gloucester, delivering the trees to recycling sites at Rococo Gardens Painswick and Highfield Garden World. All the trees were then chipped by Willow & Oak and reused sustainably.

196 plucky volunteers set out in a fleet of 86 donated vans and collected the trees in just three days from homes across the county, clocking up hundreds of miles between them.

Many local businesses supported the scheme including:

Ian Williams Ltd, Northgate Vehicle Hire, Bottlegreen Drinks, Stroud District Council, Gloucester City Council, Amazon, EESI Ltd, Wise Owl Clearance, Dursley Lions Club, K Yateman & Sons Limited, Mears Group PLC, AnyJunk, Enterprise, Severn Vale Rotary, Allstone Speedy Skips, Willow and Oak Terrascapes, Nic Miles Building, Butterworth Spengler Insurance Brokers, Wolseley UK, Lloyds Banking Group, E G Carter & Co Ltd, Safpro, Barnwood Limited and Tetbury Lions.

Ian Williams Ltd has been a regular supported of the campaign, and this year provided four Northgate vans for the tree collections.

Mike Turner, executive director of Ian Williams Ltd said: "Ian Williams are delighted to have supported the Christmas Tree Recycling campaign once again in support of such a fantastic charity. Our long-term relationship with Longfield is testament to the commitment we both share in supporting families to live well by providing personalised care for patients and their carers'."

Each year the Minchinhampton-based charity aims to give free support and care to over 2500 people across Gloucestershire.

Louise Cook, head of fundraising and marketing at Longfield Hospice, said: "We're absolutely thrilled to have raised such an amazing amount with our Christmas Tree recycling scheme; it's a truly fantastic result!

"To raise over £49,000 is a wonderful achievement - we simply could not have managed this without the help of our fabulous volunteers and corporate partners, who have donated vehicles, equipment and their time to help their local hospice. We really cannot thank them enough."

All money raised will help fund the hospice's vital work caring for patients with life-limiting conditions across Gloucestershire, and providing support for their families and carers too.