THIS could be the last year you'll see proud war veterans selling trays of poppies on the streets of Preston and South Ribble.

The Royal British Legion (RBL) is so short of volunteers in this area, it could spell the end for the annual charity blitz that takes place in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday.

Organisers blame the crisis on older members dying out and a lack of interest from younger folk.

Muriel Bell, secretary of Preston RBL, said: "It's a problem with the younger people, they are just not interested. The community spirit isn't there. I'm 83 and so many of our people are in their eighties. One man is 88. You're very limited when you get to our age."

Leyland branch secretary Sidney Harwood agreed.

"I don't have anybody under 70," he said. "When we're gone, who's going to do it?"

Now many fear the organisation could be left short of cash as well as volunteers as the money collected during the November campaign makes up half the annual income of the RBL.

Mrs Bell said: "People don't realise. They see us selling poppies in the streets and they think they just drop from the skies or something.

"The only thing that will help is if new younger people come in and join the Royal British Legion.

"Otherwise this is going to be the last year Preston can handle the poppy situation."

In Leyland advertisements for new volunteers have proved fruitless.

Mr Harwood said: "We have had a notice up in our club here in Leyland for about six weeks now. Not one person has come forward.

"What happens is it is the same few people each year that have to see this thing through. But people are getting long in the tooth, people in their seventies."

And the situation is even more grave in Lostock Hall. Michael Turner, branch secretary, said: "There are areas that aren't covered simply because organisers just haven't got the people to help them.

"A lot of people are reluctant to go house-to-house collecting, for obvious reasons.

"We can't ask old people to do that. If we can't get people to go out into these areas it means your total is going to be affected."

The legion raised more than £365,000 in Lancashire last year which goes towards the £50million spent nationally on supporting five-and-a-half million ex-servicemen and women and their dependants.