HELPFUL Holidays, the self-catering cottage company, raised an amazing £15,581.85 for its charity of the year, Farms for City Children.

Each year the company supports a charity close to its hearts and invites its holidaymakers to make a small contribution, if they wish, when making their bookings. Through this and two special fund-raising events, the remarkable sum was raised.

Helen Hayes, PR manager, said: 'We sell over 17,000 holidays a year within the West Country and we can't thank our holidaymakers enough for their generous contributions.

'By combining them with the proceeds of a hugely successful charity cricket match we held on a sunny Sunday in June against a team from Michael Caines' award-winning Michelin-starred restaurant, Gidleigh Park, and a parachute jump by four brave members of the Helpful Holidays team, we're delighted to have raised so much money for a charity for which we have great admiration.'

Farms for City Children, based in Iddesleigh, was founded by children's author Michael Morpurgo and his wife, Claire, in 1976 with their first farm, Nethercott House in Iddesleigh. They now have two more farms, one in Pembrokeshire and the other in Gloucestershire, with the aim of expand ing the horizons of children from towns and cities all over the country by offering them a week in the countryside on one of the farms.

Moray Bowater, general manager of Helpful Holidays, went along to Nethercott House to present a cheque to the charity and had an opportunity to meet children from Sunnyhill Primary School, Streatham, south London.

He said: 'It's always a delight to come to Nethercott and to see first-hand the great work the charity does for all the hundreds of children who pass through their doors every year. It's been a great year for our fundraising efforts and we'd like to thank everyone who has helped us reach this outstanding total.'