A KIND-HEARTED Christmas competition winner from Upton has donated her prize to two charities.

Amanda Parker was one of several winners in last month's CH1ChesterBID BIG Christmas Giveaway contest.

The competition ran from December 1-21 and gave away a prize every day from various Chester city centre businesses. Prizes were hidden behind advent calendar doors and revealed each day.

Day number 14 was a £200 gift voucher for Lakeland on Northgate Street.

However, competition winner Amanda chose to donate the value of the voucher to two charities close to her heart.

As a result, Lakeland put forward £200 to be donated to the chosen charities, Cancer Research UK and MIND.

Amanda said: “Both of the charities I’ve chosen are close to my heart. I lost my dad to cancer and had visited his grave the day before I found out that I had won - I felt it was meant to be when I got the opportunity to choose.

“I also chose MIND because I feel that the work they do to raise awareness of mental health is really important – it can affect anyone so it’s great that they promote talking openly about it.”

Karen Waugh, manager at Lakeland in Chester, said: “We were thrilled to be part of the CH1ChesterBID BIG Christmas giveaway in December - Chester businesses worked together to give something back to our customers. We felt that we should spread that joy a little further and added the donation to charity to our prize package.”

Amanda met Karen and Cancer Research UK Watergate Street store manager, Alison Hignett, earlier this week to present them with the cheque.

Alison said: “We are really pleased that Amanda chose us as one of her charities. Our shop on Watergate street has been open for over 30 years and raised almost £3 million from local support; we are so grateful for every donation that takes us closer to beating cancer.”

Lakeland has also arranged for a £100 cheque to be sent to MIND.

Judy Tagell, marketing manager at CH1ChesterBID, said: “It’s moments like this that really show what fantastic businesses we have in Chester city centre. It makes me proud to work in a city centre that cares.”

To find out more about CH1ChesterBID and the work it does in Chester city centre, visit www.ch1chesterbid.co.uk, call 01244 403680 or email info@ch1chesterbid.co.uk.