'All worthwhile' - Neighbours' Christmas lights show raises £6,200

Covering your house in Christmas lights and decorations every year can be a bit of a slog – but raising a four-figure sum for charity makes it all worth it.

That's exactly what residents of Wood Avens Way in Wymondham have done, after lighting up their estate for the 18th year in a row.

They created a stunning lights show with the hope of putting smiles on faces and raising money for their chosen cause, the Priscilla Bacon Hospice Appeal.

Their efforts saw a final total of £6,279 raised, eclipsing their original £1,000 target and doubling the amount raised last year, to go towards the campaign to provide dozens of specialist palliative care beds in Norwich.

One of the display's organisers, resident Claire Melton, said she was proud their their efforts have now raised around £24,000 over the years for good causes.

She said: "We have a meeting a couple of months before where we all put ideas forward and discuss charities, and then we all have a set weekend to put up all the lights and we all help each other. It takes the whole weekend to do it.

"It started very small, and every year it's just got bigger and bigger. A couple of years ago it got massive – we raised £8,000 that year, but there were so many cars.

"It's just about getting a balance of raising a lot of money for charity, but not having too many people because you have to weave through all the estate to get to it."

She added that the group of neighbours were "staggered" by people's generosity after such a difficult year, and thanked everyone for their kind comments about the lights.

"Thank you so much for your generosity in such hard times, it makes it all worthwhile. We spent a lot of time and effort putting the lights up, but it does make it worthwhile when you see all the nice comments and raise a good amount of money."

The residents of Wood Avens Way plan to put on the lights show again next year, when another charity will be selected to receive all the money raised.