Sick children spending the festive period in hospital have been given an early Christmas present, thanks to members of a King's Lynn networking group.

BNI Vancouver Chapter is a group of 28 local businesses and each member donated £10 towards the presents and gifts which were given to youngsters on Rudham ward at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Once the presents were bought, members of the chapter then wrapped them ready for Wednesday's special delivery.

Chapter member Jackie Groom, who runs domestic and commercial cleaning company Krystal Kleaning, said: 'BNI is all about giving, and at Christmas we wanted to give to our local community too. So I came up with the idea of donating presents and gifts to those children having to spend this Christmas in Rudham ward.'

She said they wanted to give gifts which the ward could really use.

'I asked what sort of things they were short of, which was baby toys and toiletries for teenagers,' she explained. 'So this is what we bought.

'It was a real team effort with Jason Thomas of Sparkle Oven Cleaning donating all of the wrapping paper and Lucie Morgan of Wesigns donating the specially-printed labels.'

This year the group has generated a record-breaking £1.77m of invoiced business for its members and is holding an open day on February 23 next year.

Vice-president Glen Piggott, of Castle Rising-based web design company Sound Wave Marketing, said: 'Our open day next year is an ideal opportunity for other local business owners and budding entrepreneurs to attend one of our weekly breakfast meetings and discover how BNI can grow their business too.'

BNI is a business and professional networking organisation which allows only one representative from each profession to join a chapter.

The purpose of the Vancouver King's Lynn chapter is to generate more business for its members. It meets every Thursday at 6.45am at the King's Lynn Innovation Centre.

Any local business owners wishing to attend the open day should book as soon as possible as places are limited. Call Mr Piggott on 01553 380264 or email openday@bnikingslynn.co.uk