A YEAR of creative and innovative ideas by a Wirral company's fundraising champions has raised thousands of pounds for Claire House.

Efforts by Birkenhead-headquartered training provider Progress to Excellence Ltd resulted in £4,467 being raised for the children's hospice after staff chose it as their charity to support throughout 2018.

An Easter egg hunt, auction, St Patrick's night event, Christmas jumper day and the raffle of an extra day's leave all contributed to the total.

Staff also manned the bar at Aintree Races and Wirral Beer Festival, donating their pay to the Claire House fund.

However, a large individual donation came from Kaye Kelly, the company's personal development behaviours and welfare officer, whose daring 10,000-foot freefall skydive raised more than £800.

Damian Burdin, chief executive at Progress to Excellence Ltd, said: "Each year our staff vote for the charity they want to support with their amazing fundraising activities.

"Claire House was a deserving choice as everyone here knows of the tremendous work done there to create experiences that help bring back some normal life to families functioning in extremely stressful and difficult situations.

"Our teams are wonderful when it comes to freely giving their time and energy to raise money for good causes and coming up with innovative and original ideas not only to boost funds for local charities but also to raise awareness of the work by these organisations in our community.

"The past year has seen some great fundraising projects for Claire House due to brilliant and fun ideas by our staff which will help the hospice continue with its vital work."

Jess Campbell, partnerships manager at Claire House, added: "We were absolutely delighted when Progress to Excellence Ltd chose Claire House as their 2018 charity of the year.

"The business is always such a pleasure to work with because staff throw themselves into fundraising events and always go above and beyond to make a difference.

"In the past six years referrals to Claire House have gone up by 84 per cent which means our hospice can no longer cope with demand and we cannot stretch what we have any further.

"We urgently need support now to increase our services both in the hospice and out in the community so we can be there wherever and whenever families need us."