GENEROUS Lancashire Evening Telegraph readers helped out homeless people at Christmas time by donating sleeping bags, gloves and scarves.

An appeal went out to readers from the manager of the Broken Arcs shop in Darwen Pat Monks for items to be donated to the homeless.

Mrs Monks said: "We gave out 70 presents to homeless people as a result of the appeal and more than 20 new sleeping bags were donated.

"We would just like to say thank you to everyone who brought stuff in.

"We felt really blessed by the amount of things people brought --it was great to see so much goodwill."

The shop on Duckworth Street is currently collecting old Christmas cards and foreign coins in aid of the homeless.

For more details call 775358.