Veteran fundraisers from local sheltered housing schemes have been cooking up a storm for the Armed Forces charity Help For Heroes.

Around 100 older people from four Sentinel Housing Association sheltered schemes in Fleet, Hook, Yateley and Hartley Wintney attended coffee mornings and raffles to raise £769 towards a national campaign to build a string of new convalescence homes for wounded service personnel.

Hook resident Peggy Russell came up with the idea after chatting to a disabled airman returning from Afghanistan, and enlisted the help of her friend Sylvia Sharpe at the Gregory House sheltered complex in Elms Road.

Gregory House scheme mana-ger Pauline Holland said: “Our older residents raise money for a wide range of causes throughout the year, and when news of this spread to Sentinel’s other shelter-ed schemes everyone got stuck in. The fund is a decent contribu-tion, especially during a recession.”

At Rosefield Court in Hartley Wintney, residents and staff rais-ed £144 from a coffee morning and raffle, while a similar event at Hedge Croft in Yateley raised £100.

In Fleet, residents of Albany Court organised a cream tea and raffle, raising £125, and in Hook, local businesses donated prizes for the Gregory House raffle, which raised just under £400.

Help For Heroes’ Hampshire co-ordinator Carolyn Balfour added: “It is events like these which have helped to make Help For Heroes such a great success.

“With family members in the services the charity is very close to my heart, and I have great pleasure and much gratitude in accepting the cheque on behalf of the charity.”