A clothing collection has raised thousands of pounds to support the Great North Air Ambulance Service.

The event, organised by Jordan Mattinson, was held at Hensingham ARLFC on Saturday, and has raised £3,500.

Previous collections held at Whitehaven RUFC have raised £23,000 for the charity.

Jordan now hopes to hold another event in December to get the fundraising total to £30,000.

He said: It went really well. We managed to fill four vans and when we’ve got the totals back, added with the total raised at the union club, it’s £26,500, which is brilliant.

"Hopefully will get over the £30k mark in December.

"The £3,500 was a lot more than we expected, given that the previous collections were held during lockdown and people had nothing else to do, we weren’t expecting such a good turnout this time, so that was great."

The importance of the GNAA was brought close to home for Jordan, after his grandad, David Brown, recently suffered a bad fall.

He said: "My grandad needed the services of the GNAA. Their speed has ended up saving his life so it’s certainly worth while."