the mother of a young boy from Lifton who won a mayoral award from West Devon Borough Council has said she is hugely proud of her son’s efforts to raise money for homeless charity Shelter.

Laura Stainer said her son Fraser, eight, surprised her with the incredible total he has managed to raise through his own efforts, after being moved to tears by the sight of homeless people on the streets of London.

Through the sales of homemade brownies, a sponsored silence, a chocolate tombola and a tabletop sale, he has raised the amazing total of £1,765 for homeless charity Crisis. Family, friends and Fraser’s classmates at Lifton Primary Acadmy all contributed.

Fraser was nominated for the award by Lifton parish and borough councillor Chris Edmonds and went to WDBC’s offices to collect his award earlier this month.

His mum Laura said the idea came out of a family trip to London for Fraser’s eighth birthday last October.

‘It was part of Fraser’s birthday present to go to Harry Potter World so we went to London,’ she said. ‘On the first day, we were going along Oxford Street, going to Hamleys, and there was a homeless man who had a sign asking for food. It really upset Fraser. I have never seen him get so emotional. He was crying uncontrollably. I said to him what you can do while you are here is give people the food you have in your rucksack, so he spent the London trip going through the streets and whenever he saw homeless people he gave food to them.

‘Then on the Tube we saw a poster for Crisis at Christmas saying it cost £29.06 to get a person off the streets. He suggested a bake sale with the aim of raising £30 and I used Facebook to promote it to friends and family, who were so supportive. He did brownie slabs and set up a Just Giving page site.’ The efforts snowballed, and after Fraser reached £1,000 he went on to raise a further £700. ‘He was chuffed to bits that he was making a difference,’ said Laura. ‘Living down here in Devon in a little village you don’t see a lot of homeless people and it really hit a nerve with him. He couldn’t put to bed what he had seen so he thought he’s do something to help.’