A SOUTH Lakeland man, who has spent the last two decades chopping and selling firewood for charity is hanging up his axe, after raising almost £40,000.

Len Ingram, of Crook, began his charity work when he saw building work was taking place across the road from his house, and a big pile of used timber was growing day by day.

Mr Ingram asked about the wood and was told he could take it. He chopped it up and sold it from home, with a steady flow of people coming to buy it.

"It was unbelievable, it took off so quickly," said Mr Ingram. "Word got around and people started donating wood for me to chop and sell.

"I remember one Saturday night getting a phone call from a guy in Harrogate wanting to give me a truck load. He drove over just to donate all this wood after he saw the sign outside my house a few weeks earlier. The generosity of people never fails to amaze me."

Mr Ingram first donated his funds to CancerCare and, in the last eight years, he began to donate to St John's Hospice, Lancaster.

What started out as a small project, grew into something much bigger for Mr Ingram. He said it has been a big part of life this last 20 years.

“It has been wonderful," he said. "I have made so many friends, and you know what? Every single person who has come down my drive wanting wood has been lovely. I charge a fiver for a bag and people very often leave £10 or £20 as they know it is for a good cause."

Mr Ingram also received donations of sofas, iron bed heads and even a nine foot tall fibre glass Santa Claus that St John's made use of for its Christmas fair.

St John’s Hospice has been the main beneficiary of Mr Ingram's chopping, particularly in the last five or six years, and community fundraiser, Jill Santamera, expressed her gratitude for his efforts.

“I have lived in Windermere most of my life and have known Len and his wife Elizabeth for many years," she said. "They are genuinely one of the most selfless and thoughtful couples I have ever met. We are so grateful for the unbelievable support they have given St John’s Hospice. The sign that has hung at the top of his drive for so long has become famous round here; it will be strange driving past and not seeing it!"