Gillotts Funeral Directors hands over proceeds from its biggest remembrance campaign

Gillotts Funeral Directors has given the money to four food banks across the region, in Selston and Eastwood, as well as Stapleford and Heanor.

The company operates branches in each of the four locations, as well as a fifth branch in Kimberley, and raised the money through its annual Christmas remembrance appeal at the end of last year.

This involved the company inviting families to visit its office to leave messages to their departed loved ones on the branches of a Christmas tree, with Gillotts putting aside £1 for every label that was left.

Visitors were also welcome to make their own donations and also leave bags of groceries for the food banks as well.

Gillotts has run the appeal for about 15 years, but Anthony Topley, a partner in the firm, said this year saw record numbers of people visiting the branches to leave their messages and leaving donations of food at the same time.

He said: “We had an amazing response from our families this year, clearly the current concern with the cost of living, and the increase in number of people using food banks, has stirred people’s community-mindedness and they have come out in numbers.

“It’s incredible how quickly Christmas has been and gone, but we have a huge number of labels from our trees at each of our offices. We have kept every single label that people have left over the years and we’re going to need some extra space.

“We love bringing people together for our remembrance event and it’s even more special when it results in raising money for local food banks who are working so hard to serve our communities.”

One of the food banks to benefit from the appeal was The Tin Hat Centre, on Chapel Road, Selston.

Chris Tomlinson, centre manager, said: “We are extremely grateful for the kindness and continued support shown by Gillotts.

“Unfortunately, we are having to help more people than ever before due to the cost-of-living crisis, so we really appreciate the donation of food and money to help our community.”