SPECULATE to accumulate. Those words certainly ring true with the volunteers at Rossendale Hospice.

Chairman of Rossendale Hospice Dorothy Mitchell issued a challenge to the volunteers to exercise their entrepreneurial skills with the aid of £10. And they could put Richard Branson to shame because so far the profit is around £3,000.

Amy Flynn raised £150 by compiling a flower quiz and a volunteer driver paid for her mileage, Sheila Townson, Evelyn Scholes and Jean Papworth, all from Helmshore, raised £347 on a bric-a-brac stall on Rawtenstall Market.

Derek Weston, a trust manager at Burnley Health Care Trust, raised £120 from staff at the Burnley base, Susannah Mitchell is selling her own free range eggs, Rose Atherton is entering competitions with the hospice as beneficiary and Maureen Brimley is holding a second-hand book book fair at a seminar in Harrogate.

A fund-raiser at the Holden Arms, Haslingden, with a tombola, karaoke and grand raffle organised by Pat Armstrong and Hazel Callister raised more than £1,000.

Still to be held is an Italian evening at St James the Less RC Church on April 10 and a concert at the Astoria, Rawtenstall, at a date to be arranged.

Mrs Mitchell used her £10 to buy stamps to write to celebrities asking for autographed photographs to make a collage in one of the lounges and signed bank notes to auction. So far a third of the people have responded with Victoria Wood sending a letter, a signed £5 note and a cheque for £500, John Thaw and Sheila Hancock sent £100 and Alan Bennett sent a postcard complete with pen drawing caricature of himself.

A dinner will be held at the Dunkenhalgh, Clayton-le-Moors, on May 21 with a humorous speaker, stars and an auction to celebrate the success of the challenge.

For more information and details of tickets contact 01706 240084.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.