A group of Westhoughton travel agents have organised a coach trip to raise money for a local charity which supports older people in their community.

The team from Hays Travel, on Market Street in Westhoughton, took almost 100 customers to the York Christmas Markets on Sunday 23 November, with the funds from ticket sales going to local charity, Senior Solutions.

Senior Solutions support the older members of Westhoughton and surrounding districts from the damaging effects of loneliness and social isolation by offering befriending services and social groups.

After selling out the first coach within 24 hours, the Hays Travel team decided to add an extra coach to their trip, selling 98 seats in total.

The team then entertained their customers on route to York with bingo, scratch cards and raffles, as well as offering Bucks Fizz, mince pies and homemade ‘reindeer dust’.

The charity coach trip raised a whopping £1,547 in total for the local charity.

Westhoughton Hays Travel branch manager, Laura Howarth, said: “I'm so very proud of my team who worked so hard in making this charity event a huge success. It was weeks of planning and they really did a fabulous job!”

Regular Hays Travel customer and Westhoughton resident, Keith Atkinson, said: “Thank you for a fantastic day out to York you all arranged for us.

"Everyone I spoke to on the coach enjoyed all the activities on the journey there and back, and York was a wonderful location to visit.

"You all not only organised everything to perfection for one coach, but for two coaches, both full of happy customers. That shows how well respected, liked, and helpful you all are to your customers.

“A great deal of hard work over the past few weeks behind the scenes obviously went on to make it a huge success, from making reindeer dust to the raffle and bingo.

"The mince pies were a delight, especially the thoughtfulness in offering gluten free mince pies to include all your customers. All this on top of a very generous donation to a worthy local charity. Wonderful.”

Hays Travel is the UK’s largest independent travel agent, with branches across the UK - all committed to supporting their customers and the local communities they serve. Each Hays Travel branch is provided with a £500 budget to use for fundraising and charity work in their local area; £200 of this is to be used to fundraise for charities which support young people’s mental health, and the other £300 can be used for charities chosen by the branch.

In the last year, Hays Travel’s Local Community Partnership initiative across its retail network has donated over £177,000 to local charities.