Bikers saddled up and collected Easter eggs for needy children around south Essex.

The members of the Estuary motorcycle club stopped of at various points on their Easter Egg run which went from Hullbridge to Canvey, then Great Wakering, and finished in Southend.

The eggs were dropped off at the Salvation Army citadel in Clarence Road Southend, to be distributed among needy children. Estuary club secretary Reg Stammers said more than 100 eggs were collected.

Stop off points were at Safeway on Canvey, Asda in Shoebury and the White Hart pub in Great Wakering.

He said: "Bikers have got an ill-deserved reputation so we are trying to prove we are not as bad as we are painted to be, and we have got feelings.

"A lot of people give us stuff, and it is just to help out the kids in the area." To take part in the run, riders were told they had to bring an Easter egg as an entry fee.

Reg's wife followed in her car to carry the eggs as the bikers collected them after an incident in a previous year when some were dropped and ruined.

The run set off from Fairways Garden Centre in Hullbridge.

Gearing up - Reg Stammers, left, with fellow bikers and Major Geoff Ashdown of Southend Salvation Army

Picture: MIKE BELLENIE

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.