Thousands of Christmas trees are currently being tagged pre-sale by Darlington Rotary to promote a fundraising campaign for a hospice.

Croft Christmas Trees hopes to sell more than 4,000 trees this year and has allowed the volunteers to invite purchasers to have their trees recycled into biomass fuel pellets in support of Darlington’s St Teresa’s Hospice.

During the weekend of January 6 and 7, more than 70 Rotarians will tour streets with a fleet of 20 large vans collecting the trees in return for a donation from the homeowner.

Darlington and Stockton Times: Members of Darlington Rotary tagging trees

“We really appreciate the help offered by Croft Christmas Trees which plays a major part in our campaign,” said Rotary organiser David Hayward. “We hope overall to collect around 1,600 trees and beat last year’s record of more than £13,000 raised for the hospice.”

Hospice chief executive Nicola Myers said: “Every year the hospice offers end of life care free to over 1,000 local residents and we are always short of essential running costs.”

To register your tree for collection visit: darlingtonhospice.org.uk/CTC or phone 01325 254321.