Christmas fair success for St Michael's Hospice

The Cooden Beach Hotel was home to a myriad of stalls with a stunning range of gift ideas and goodies, from handcrafted jewellery to knitted flower brooches, organic cakes to eco-friendly toys, bags made out of vintage fabric, and bracelets made from recycled lego bricks.

Suzanne Leonard of St Michael's Hospice said: "We are really pleased - people have been streaming in, and we have had good support from Bexhill and Hastings.

"Hopefully people will spend lots of money and support all the stallholders. The hospice stall has got a lot of Christmas wares, and we have a huge range of cards and decorations which seem to be going pretty well.

"We are pleased with the quality of stalls we have got here today - this is the first fair we have held in Bexhill, and a lot of work has gone into it, being the first one.

"We are really pleased with the venue - the Cooden Beach Hotel is very supportive of the hospice, and we are pleased to be able to have it here. The way things are going we will definitely do it again - we have had very positive comments."

Pat Hawkins, who is lottery manager at the the hospice, commented: "It is lovely to see so many people. Because this is the first one we weren't sure of how many people would come but the support seems to be wonderful, and people are here buying their Christmas presents."

Also representing St Michael's was head of fundraising Perdita Chamberlain, who was in charge of the tombola and said: "This is brilliant...I would like to thank everybody for coming and supporting us. It is our second Christmas fair but our first at Cooden Beach and hopefully this is the first of many more to come."