Trees have been placed in Bolton Market Place to bring a little hope to familes fleeing war-torn Ukraine.

The centre has unveiled its 'giving trees' so people can help Ukrainian refugees during their stay in Bolton.

People across the borough have been given the chance to help by gifting vouchers which are currently hanging from trees in the Market Place.

Yaroslaw Tymchyshyn, chairman of the Bolton Branch of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain unveiled the display.

Shoppers can take the tags and buy a voucher from the store named on the card.

The vouchers will then be put into a post box which has been  painted in the colours of the Ukraine flag.

Mr Tymchyshyn was joined by Ania Slobodian who recently arrived in the UK from Ukraine.

Mr Tymchyshyn said: "We decided to partner up with the Market Place because it has better footflow than some other places in Bolton and I do believe the positioning of it here is in a premier spot and I believe in the generosity of Bolton people who will buy into this.

"I'm totally and utterly blown away by what Nicky and her team have done from the Market Place management, it's absolutely unbelievable and fantastic.

"All people have to do is take a tag from one of the trees and then go to the store that is on the reverse of the tag and then buy a voucher put it in an envelope and write down the number and put it in the post box and at the end of the event we will allocate all the vouchers to Ukrainian families.

"I just thought this was a really good way for people of Bolton to get donations to our Ukrainian guests."

Gill Davidson, guest services manager at the Market Place Shopping Centre said: "At the Market Place we really like to encourage all different charities and we really wanted to help with the Ukraine appeal from the beginning and we just wanted to help another part of the community that a lot of people seem to have missed or forgotten.

"So we just wanted to bring it to the forefront of peoples minds again and hopefully we can help as many people as possible."

The gift giving tree will be in the Market Place until August 27, and then Mr Tymchyshyn will randomly designate families to a number on the voucher which will then be donated to a Ukrainian family.

As well as the giving tree, this week a choir of Ukrainians will also be performing in Market Place at 1pm on Saturday( July 16) to give local people a further opportunity to celebrate the links between Bolton and the Ukraine.