Last updated at 13:26, Friday, 16 January 2009

The fundraising efforts of an Aspatria gran have ended on a sour note after fake cash was given to her in payment for charity CDs.

Wendy Campbell

Wendy Campbell raised more than £1,000 for the Great North Air Ambulance with a recording of a Christmas carol in local dialect.

Her alternative take on The Twelve Days of Christmas had been bought by people as far away as New Zealand and America.

But on Tuesday, she discovered two of the £20 notes and a £1 coin she had been given were counterfeit.

She said: “It is a bit of a kick in the teeth.

“I had been selling the CD at a garden centre at Gosforth and I think they might have been collected there.

“People in Aspatria have mostly been giving cheques. They were very good fakes and I want to warn people to watch out for them.”

Wendy will put the cash back into the fundraising pot out of her own pocket.

She is still pleased with her achievement.

She said: “I was surprised – people move away, but they still get The Cumberland News and they read about my CD. It’s gone all over the world. It’s gone to the USA, to New Zealand, to the Netherlands. I’ve even conquered Wales!”

The air ambulance is a special charity to Wendy, of King Street, as her eight-year-old granddaughter, Abigail O’Regan, of Abbeytown, was airlifted to hospital four years ago.

Wendy thanked Lesley and Mike in Aspatria post office for their help.

The CDs cost £3 plus 50p postage. Call 016973 20040.

First published at 05:17, Friday, 16 January 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk