An Ilkley PR company will today start 12 days of festive fundraising to support the Telegraph & Argus Children’s Secret Santa Appeal.

The six-strong team from Approach PR has pledged to raise money every day by dedicating their lunch hours to standing with collecting buckets, hosting a mince pie and coffee morning, selling ‘old for new’ toys on eBay to generate cash and is opening a Just Giving page to create an easy way to donate.

Managing director and mother-of-two Suzanne Johns said: “Christmas is such an exciting time for us as a team and myself as a mum but when you stop and think about the families and children who go without at this special time – we knew we had to do something to help make Christmas special for them too.”

From today until Friday, December 14, the Approach team will be taking to the streets of Ilkley in their Santa hats collecting money from locals, shoppers and businesses.

And they will be opening their office doors above Betty’s on The Grove on Tuesday, December 4, for a mince pie morning. She said: “We’ve all pledged to donate our team Secret Santa budget for each other to the charity too – so there’s already £60 in the pot!

“As soon as we heard about the T&A’s latest Christmas campaign, we knew that with a bit of imagination and Christmas magic, we could rally support to really make a difference.”

The T&A is appealing for schools, community groups, businesses and other organisations to organise their own fundraising events to help us bring the magic of Christmas to children living in poverty across the district.

The T&A Children’s Secret Santa Appeal is being run in association with Great Horton-based aid charity Human Relief Foundation. Money donated will be used to buy presents which will be wrapped and delivered on Christmas Eve.