St Luke's Hospice is once again collecting and recycling Christmas trees in return for donations towards patient care.

Registration for the annual Christmas Tree Collection service is now open. Last year a staggering 2,824 trees were collected by more than 60 volunteers, raising £40,000 in vital donations for the Hospice.

Jane Thompson, Head of Events at St Luke's, said: "We have been running the collection for 11 years now and we're always delighted to receive such amazing support from the community. The Christmas Tree Collection gives our fundraising a much-needed New Year boost and helps us to continue to care for local people and their families. In these difficult times the money it brings in is going to be more important than ever.

"I would urge everyone with a real tree to register nice and early to guarantee collection. Then come January our team of wonderful volunteers will be along to collect your tree – saving you the trouble of pine needles in your car and queuing at the tip!

"It's worth remembering that all the trees we collect are responsibly chipped and the chippings shared around the community creating mulch to suppress weeds without the need for weed killer, so it's a green and environmentally friendly end for your Christmas tree."

St Luke's runs the Christmas Tree Collection in partnership with Just Helping. This year's collection has also been kindly sponsored by A-Plan Insurance.

Branch Manager James Bull said: "The entire A-Plan Northwich team is delighted to support the invaluable Christmas tree recycling service for St Luke's Hospice this year. January is a notoriously difficult time for any charity, so the Christmas tree recycling scheme, which generates around £10 per tree collected for this wonderful charity, is an invaluable resource to our community.

"As we are very much part of our local community, it feels right to support St Luke's as much as possible. We have no doubt the scheme will be a huge success, and we invite everyone to register to donate their trees to the scheme in the New Year."

Households across the CW1 to CW11 postcode district can register now to have their tree collected by visiting www.slhospice.co.uk/christmastree