FUNDRAISING Santas have collected almost £4,000 for charity.

The town centre collections carried out by Blackburn's Round Table proved so successful that the group had to forego a helping hand from one of the world's strongest men.

Mark Felix, who is ranked fourth in the international strong-man ratings, had been due to help member Andrew Bridge carry more than 16-stone of coins into a local bank.

But so much cash was collected that the charity needed to deposit it earlier than expected.

Mr Felix, from Rishton, had offered his assistance after Mr Bridge, of Balmoral Road, Accrington, was given a £30 fine when he parked on a single yellow line in Haslingden while dropping off money at Barclays bank, Deansgate.

Mr Bridge said: "Our collections were really successful and we were about £250 up on last year.

"Needless to say we didn't want to leave the money lying around so we took it to the bank as soon as we could."

The money will be used to help fund several projects throughout the year.