Two children’s hospice charities have benefited from a Santa’s Christmas grotto created by a garden centre and run by a Rotary club.

Rotn Paul Riley, president of Kirkby Rotary Club, handed cheques for £1,200 each to Trevor and Christine Hipsley, from Bluebell Wood Hospice, North Anston, and to Maggie Deere, of Rainbows Hospice, Loughborough.

Paul, pictured with Maggie, was wearing the clothes he wore during a trip to India, where he and two other Kirkby Rotarians took part in a National Immunisation Day initiative to help eradicate polio.

The grotto was at the Reuben Shaw centre in Moor Green. It was run by Kirkby Rotary Club, wicho provided Santa and his helper elves, with additional volunteer elves from Bluebell Wood and Rainbows. In the four weekends leading up to Christmas, hundreds of children visited the grotto with their families to receive presents and take photos.

Maggie Deere, guest speaker at a Rotary meeting, gave a slide presentation on the work of the Rainbows Children’s Hospice and said: “This donation is really generous “and will make a difference to a lot of people.”

She said the hospice covers all the East Midlands, and currently has 367 children, 257 siblings and 240 bereaved families within its care.