STAFF from Offerton Farm Nursery held a raffle to help raise funds for Acorns' new children's hospice, despite disaster striking at their farm.

The raffle took place on the site where the new Acorns Children's hospice is to be built.

Nursery owner Sarah Weston and staff had been planning a major fund-raising event to help drum up money for the new children's hospice when Mrs Weston received the news in April that their farm was on the edge of a foot-and-mouth infected area.

The news meant that Mrs Weston, who farms with her husband, had to destroy their cattle and livestock.

However, the nursery was determined that its fund-raising event would only be postponed, not cancelled so rescheduled the main event.

"Because the raffle tickets were dated the raffle had to be done on Saturday, June 23, we thought it would be a nice idea to do it on the site," said Fran Winterbourne, Acorns' fund- raising officer in the Worcester area.

"Coming to the site and seeing the generosity of June Sayce who donated the land makes us all at Offerton proud to be involved in helping to fund-raise for Acorns."

First prize from the raffle was a motorised children's cycle and other prizes included a trip to a safari park.