CRISPIE the feathered fundraiser has already appeared on calendars and Christmas cards sold in aid of charity.

She has been raising money for good causes since being adopted by the manager of a hotel in the New Forest.

Now the two-year-old Aylesbury duck is poised to help some of the region’s youngest cancer patients.

Liz Cottingham, owner of The Mill at Gordleton, has published a children’s storybook about Crispie, who lives with Terri Seabright and her husband Mike at their Holbury home.

Every morning Terri takes Crispie to work and lets her waddle around the hotel, where she enjoys celebrity status.

Some of the proceeds from the sale of Crispie The Duck – Her First Years will go to the Piam Brown Ward at Southampton General Hospital.

Patients include four-year-old Jaime Allinson, whose mother, Tina Hannington, used to work at the hotel in Silver Street, Hordle.

Jaime was only three when doctors discovered a tumour the size of a grapefruit. He underwent six months of chemotherapy, followed by a five-hour operation in which surgeons removed 60 per cent of his liver.

Jaime is currently in remission following another course of chemotherapy, which is thought to have destroyed any remaining fragments of the tumour.

Tina, 47, of Lymington, said: “The liver is the only organ in the body that regenerates and Jaime should end up with a liver that’s 90 per cent of what it should be.

“He has a scan every three months and will have to see a consultant until he’s 17, but the prognosis is good.”

Tina praised the “fantastic” care her son had received at the Piam Brown Ward, which treats young cancer patients from across the South.

She is also a big fan of Crispie, whose heart-warming story will raise vital funds for the unit.

Crispie was only a day old when Terri found her outside the hotel. She took her home and became her substitute mother, even teaching her how to swim.

The 12-page book, which is illustrated by Liz’s daughter Abi and starts in classic storybook style with the words “Once upon a time”, is on sale at the hotel and the hospital. It will also be available at the Yuletide in Lymington event on December 9.