An Astley Bridge councillor has joined her neighbour to create blue and yellow bows to raise money for the Ukraine crisis and they have already raised £500.

Cllr Hilary Fairclough and her neighbour, Lynn Elcoat, owner of Classy Wrap in Sharples, have partnered up to create the bows in the colour of the war torn state's flag to be displayed on front doors to raise money for the Red Cross Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

Cllr Fairclough said she and Lynn had previously done rainbow bows for Fortalice during the pandemic and decided to do it again this year for the Jubliee but then changed their minds after the Russian invasion.

She said: "When I was mayor and Covid struck, I said you know we could make bows for charity and at the time it was Covid which was all rainbows, so we made rainbow bows.

"And we made them for Fortalice, one of my mayoral charities.

"So we started off and when I say it took off, that's an understatement, we managed to raise around £600 which we were delighted with.

"So this time we were actually talking about doing some for the Queen's Jubilee, and then, of course, the Ukrainian war began and I said I know people want to show their support, so we could do bows to put on people's doors instead.

"We just thought it was our way of doing something to raise some funds and it was an opportunity for people to show their support.

"We have quite a large Ukrainian population in Bolton, and I think it just shows that we are with them, all be it in spirit and it's an opportunity to give them that bit of an uplift and to raise funds."

Lynn said both herself and Cllr Fairclough just wanted to help in any way they could.

She said: "We just wanted to help, there's so much going on in Ukraine, we just wanted to do our little bit and it's nice that the community can show that they are helping as well.

"I'm making the bows and they are selling like crazy.

"People are really doing what they can and lots of them have been doing little boxes to send over and they are really getting together to do what they can for people in Ukraine."

Bows are priced at £5 each and can be bought from Cllr Fairclough or at Classy Wraps, 11 Sharples Avenue, BL1 7HB.

£4 from each sale of a bow will be sent to the Red Cross Appeal.