Businesses are being urged to encourage people to donate used stamps, foreign coins, broken watches and old keys to raise money for a hospice charity.

St Clare Hospice, based in Hastingwood Road, Hastingwood, has set up a drop-off point at the Loughton Club, a social club in Station Road, to collect the unwanted items and the hospice is encouraging other local businesses to do the same.

The first 75kg consignment of donations boosted their funds by £479.09, with six ix stamps from 1959 being sold on eBay for £42.

Fundraising manager Anna Baldwin said: “We know lots of companies now have franking machines and lots of business is done through e-mail, but used stamps are still valuable to us and we’re more than willing to help you collect them for us.

“And individuals who busily save up their old stamps and don’t know who to give them to will now hopefully find it easier to drop them off.”

St Clare Hospice provides support to people with life-limiting and terminal illnesses and to their families.