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Readers targeted in small change cash plea

Readers of a West Midlands weekly returning from their summer holidays are being asked to donate their spare foreign currency in the name of charity.

The Change For The Better initiative was launched by the Great Barr Observer six months ago and aims to raise as much money as possible for local sufferers of deafblindness.

Now the campaign has been re-launched in time for people coming back from their holidays.

Sutton travel agency, Robert Broad Travel, are running the campaign with the paper and will convert all donations into sterling for the charity Sense.

Observer editor Gary Phelps said: “When we first started Change For The Better with Robert Broad, the idea was just to collect currency that had become obsolete because of the euro.

“However, it soon snowballed and we have received coins from all over the world.

“We thought we could re-launch the scheme until the summer season is over, as people are coming back from their holidays with pockets full of foreign coins and notes that will probably just be thrown into a drawer at home and forgotten.

“If that money is donated to Change For The Better, it can be used to improve the life of someone less fortunate.

“We hope Sense will spend the money locally. At first count we had collected £700 and that was 3 or 4 weeks into the campaign. It has now been running for six months.

“We started off supporting the charity with a Christmas card sale and we thought we’d carry on supporting the same charity for a year. We will be collecting people’s foreign currency until around November time.”

Collection points are also located at the Observer’s sister publications: the Walsall Advertiser, the Lichfield Mercury and the Tamworth Herald.

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