A CARLISLE family has raised more than £1,500 for local charities.

Charlotte McNeil and her daughters, Lottie and Trixie, raised the money for Carlisle & Eden Mind and Carlisle Youth Zone's mentoring service.

It all began when Charlotte set up an Instagram account for their dog, Griff, during the first lockdown.

Charlotte, 38, from Stanwix, wasn't keen at first.

She said: "The girls wanted me to set one up for our dog Griff and it became a great distraction during what was a difficult time.

"It allowed us to have a bit of an escape and to absorb ourselves in something really fun."

They soon started to follow lots of other griffons, which is Griff's breed, on Instagram.

"A lot of them had their own pin badges that they’d had made," said Charlotte, who works as a probation officer.

"So we started to collect all these pin badges and it had always been a bit of a dream to have our own pin badge."

After getting another griffon owner to create a design, Charlotte got the badges manufactured in China.

She paid for it all out of her own pocket.

They then started promoting them on Griff's Instagram account, selling 200 badges in the process.

Charlotte said: "I wanted to do the fundraiser in memory of a family friend who took their life during lockdown, but also as a result of seeing the direct impact of the pandemic on my caseload at work, as well as seeing friends & family struggle with their mental health too."