STUDENTS and staff from Bury College have knitted sixty chicks in an eggstra-ordinary effort to raise money for Francis House Children’s Hospice.

The handmade chicks were sold in a raffle to raise £320 in total for the hospice’s Easter Knitted Chick Appeal.

Patricia Farrelly, team leader at the Beacon Centre, rallied her colleagues and students to take part in the appeal after a friend tagged her in a Facebook post from Francis House looking for knitters to take part.

“I am really proud of our staff and students and the wonderful amount of money that they have raised for such a good cause,” said Patricia.

Francis House Children’s Hospice in Didsbury is on target to beat the 40,000 knitted chicks it received last year for the appeal.

The chick knit in 2017 raised an egg-cellent £50,000 for the hospice.

Sacks of hundreds of multi-coloured chicks have been arriving in the run up to Easter from across Greater Manchester and around the world.

Each woolly creation was filled with a small crème egg sized chocolate egg and sold across the region for £1.

Revd David Ireland, chief executive of Francis House said: “On behalf of Francis House and the 1,200 people we support I would like express our grateful thanks to everyone who has supported our Easter chick appeal.”

The hospice provides high levels of clinical care from a home-from-home environment to the families of children with life-limiting conditions. All of the money raised from the chick knit will help towards the long term running costs of the hospice.