VILLAGERS can hold their heads high after raising more than £4,000 for the recent poppy appeal despite most fundraisers being cancelled due to Covid.

Residents in Earls Colne and White Colne were left saddened after it was announced their annual poppy appeal would be largely cancelled last month.

Organisers were concerned by the threat posed by Covid-19 and called off their usual door to door collections.

The villages do well to raising money consistently and last year raised a whopping £7,400 - the second highest sum achieved by them in recent years.

This year however, residents where still able to raise £4,364.

Organisers were able to host a stall in the High Street outside the Co-op which raised a shocking £2,200 in just two days

The figures come after further hardship hit the stall.

Bad weather forced organisers to call off collections on multiple occasions before the second lockdown shut down street collections for the rest of the week.

Despite this, organiser Ian Allman is thrilled with the results.

He said: “Despite the best efforts of the Covid-19 pandemic and second lockdown, the two villages still managed to collect a total of £4,364.86.

“I had hoped that we would see an increase in the amount donated at our stand in the High Street outside the Co-op. but I never anticipated that we’d collect almost £2,200 in just two days.

“The collecting tins placed in various shops and other outlets throughout Earls Colne raised just over £1,500 with the remainder coming mostly from the sale of poppy wreaths.

“Before this year’s appeal started, knowing that there would be no house to house collections, no coffee morning and no church collections I had hoped we would still be able to achieve at least £2,000, so I’m delighted my original target turned out to be far too pessimistic.

The people of Earls Colne and White Colne have once again dug deep and can be proud of their contribution to the annual Poppy Appeal; despite the trying conditions.

“With encouraging news regarding possible vaccines for Covid-19, hopefully by next year we will be back to something like normal.”