St. Joseph’s Hospice has launched a tasty challenge for local school children to get their teeth in to this winter.

The hospice is offering schools across Merseyside the chance to raise money and help fund patient care by giving each child a tube of Smarties to eat.

Once the tube is empty, the children are challenged to collect either 20p’s or £1 coins from their friends, neighbours and families, to fill the tube.

Hospice fundraiser, Zoe Furnivall, said: “One empty Smarties tube can hold £12 in 20p coins and £27 in £1 coins. If you multiply this by hundreds of children in lots of schools, it’s a fantastic way for local children to do a bit of fundraising for a local charity which is so close to many people’s hearts in our community.

“Schools across the area took part last year but we’d like to get even more schools involved this year so please get in touch with our fundraising team so we can get your Smarties tubes delivered.”

As a registered charity, the hospice doesn’t charge for the care it provides but it does have to rely on the generosity of the local community to support it. This means initiatives like the Smarties Challenge are vital as it costs over £3 million every year, or £8,750 a day, to keep St. Joseph’s Hospice running.

If your school would like to take on the Smarties Challenge, call the hospice’s fundraising team on 0151 932 6044 or email events@jospice.org.uk.