Poppy collector praises Sidmouth's generosity

PEOPLE are giving generously to those volunteering to do door-to-door collections for this year s Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal as one helper found out.

PEOPLE are giving generously to those volunteering to do door-to-door collections for this year's Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal as one helper found out.

Over two a Saturday and Sunday, 'Charlie' Reynolds from Roselands, collected a record �203.

She wants to thank people living in Roselands, Higher Woolbrook Park, Ridgeway Mead and Ice House Lane for their generous donations "especially Higher Woolbrook Park."

Charlie, as she is known, has been a Poppy collector since moving to Sidmouth with her late husband David, who was in the RAF, and between them they have received a 20-year badge for their collecting work.

"My husband always did Higher Woolbrook Park, Ice House Lane and Ridgeway. When he died six years ago I took over," said Charlie, who has since remarried.

This year she also collected at Roselands, taking over from Lois Pickering, whose husband John died recently.

"I usually collect around �100, but this year there were a lot of elderly people putting in �5 and �10 notes.

"I think it is because of the war in Afghanistan, which people wanted to talk about our soldiers coming back from there, and a lot of them remember the Second World War," she said.