A FOUR-year-old girl has been working to raise hundreds of pounds in donations for St John’s Hospice so she can make carers smile again.

Arabella Wheatman, a pupil at Burton Morewood school reception, has been working to make rainbow bracelets to sell for donations towards the staff at St John’s Hospice in Lancaster.

She has raised almost £520 in her efforts and will continue to gather further funds in the future.

Katherine Wheatman, Arabella’s mother, said: “She’s worked so hard on it.

“She is making around 100 bracelets herself. Each one takes her at least 10 - 20 minutes. Bless her heart, it is a long ongoing process!

“Even though she’s so young and she has not fully understood the gravity of the situation yet, but she really understands the needs of others and in her own way is making a difference to spread some love at a difficult time.

“Many of the donations were well above the £1 contribution we originally asked for. She’s threaded over 2000 beads!”

Her and her family delivered the funds to the staff on May 26th in a safe manner in accordance with social distancing.

“She’s been really excited about all of this. Obviously, the value of it to a 4-year-old means nothing. She’s happy that the poorly people are being looked after with the money and that the staff will be cheered up when they eat the sweeties”.

Catherine Butterworth, Director of Income Generation, St John’s Hospice said: “We are really touched that Arabella has made all of these lovely friendship bracelets to raise money for the care of patients and their families.

“To have raised £500 at the age of 4 makes Arabella one of our youngest and cleverest fundraisers!”

To help Arabella with her future fundraising for St John’s hospice go to justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ArabellasRainbowBracelet.