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A SmartWater Employee has donated more than 250 soft toys from her 15-year collection to a Children’s Hospice charity.

Jo Austins, who works as a Laboratory Technician at SmartWater has given away the toys to Hope House. She has been collecting Disney’s Winnie the Pooh character soft toys for 15 years but decided to give the collection away after moving house.

She said: “I have recently moved house and storage of my Winnie the Pooh collection was becoming a problem. I didn’t want to sell them and so I decided to offer the whole collection to Hope House. I wanted the toys to go to a good home where they would be loved, so I’m delighted they’ve gone to Hope House.”

SmartWater Chief Executive Phil Cleary said: “I cannot praise Jo enough for making such a wonderful and generous donation to Hope House. Because of Jo’s kindness these toys will help bring smiles to the faces of many children and their families during the most difficult of times.”

Hope House Area Fundraiser, Rachel Thomas, said: “We cannot thank Jo enough for donating her highly sought after toys to Hope House, we are now busy finding them all homes in the hospice."

Hope House provide support to terminally-ill local children and their families through respite care at home and in the Oswestry hospice.