MORE than 500 Christmas trees were collected from homes in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole by Dorset Mind and their charity partners Stewarts Garden Centres and Maidmans Moving and Storage.

Trees were collected for £10 and recycled - into four-tonnes of wood chips which will be used at Stewarts - raising more than £5,000 for Dorset Mind and will go towards funding their one-to-one and group support programmes.

CEO of Dorset Mind, Linda O’Sullivan said: “We're so grateful to Maidmans and Stewarts Garden Centre for supporting us in our new venture into recycling trees and thank you to all those who donated. This was our first-time organising tree recycling and we're excited about the potential for next year’s campaign."

The Stewarts team who collected the trees, said: “We were so pleased that Dorset Mind joined us to collect Christmas Trees - and we enjoyed having the opportunity to raise more money to help them continue their efforts in supporting the current mental health crisis."

Maidmans’ director, Steven Webber said: “We were delighted to assist this amazing charity, which is very close to our hearts, with the collection of the Christmas trees raising much-needed donations. It was very well organized from start to finish - and we look forward to helping next year.”