A specialist hospice is launching an eco-friendly initiative to dispose of Christmas trees in the New Year.

Weldmar Hospicecare’s Christmas Treecycle invites people to book in a Christmas tree collection in January 2024, in return for a suggested minimum donation of £10 per tree to the charity.

Collections will be made between Saturday, January 6 and Monday, January 8 in the Weymouth, Portland, Dorchester, Beaminster, Blandford, Bridport, Sherborne, Shaftesbury, and Gillingham areas.

The initiative is supported by locally run Trinity St. Christmas Trees - the largest grower and retailer of Christmas trees in Dorset. They will be making the collections on Weldmar’s behalf, alongside Weldmar volunteers, while also helping to dispose of the trees in an eco-friendly manner.

Weldmar Hospicecare is a charity that provides specialist end of life care for people living in Dorset who have a life limiting illness, such as heart disease, cancer, and Motor Neurone Disease. They also offer their support to loved ones throughout the patient's illness.

Fiona Hansford, Fundraising Lead at Weldmar, said: “This will be the sixth year of running Weldmar’s Christmas Treecycle, and each year it has grown, every donation for every tree collected means that we can continue to provide specialist care for adults in Dorset living with a life limiting illness, and support for their loved ones. I’m looking forward to going out and helping with the collections again this year.’

Tamzin Hyde from Trinity St. Christmas Trees said: “As a local Dorset based Christmas tree grower and retailer, we are delighted to be partnering on this scheme with Weldmar once again. Last year was a record year and we were able to collect over 1200 trees, which raised an amazing £12,500 for the charity, this will make an incredible difference to people across Dorset.

“Weldmar are a great charity we are pleased to support, and this is a fantastic scheme, supporting our local community, that we are extremely proud to be involved with.”

To find out more about the collections or about volunteering, visit the Weldmar Hospicecare website.