THE town was painted red on Friday last week to celebrate Comic Relief.

The Kingfisher Ward at Andover War Memorial Hospital got into the spirit and raised money for Red Nose Day.

Staff organised a cake sale and put up a joke board - people paid £1 to put their jokes on the board and the winner got a free red nose cake

Maria Burchett, discharge facilitator, said: “The patients helped with the decorations as part of their rehab.

“They do that during their activities with Sue during the morning.

“The staff got involved too. Half of these guys are in on their day off so that’s commitment to the ward I think.”

And employees at Twinings raised £851.58, with pop-up Red Nose stands and plenty of opportunities for staff to donate as teams turned up wearing something red or buying from the stalls, which offered merchandise cookies, cupcakes and gingerbread people.

Staff took turns in a Special Red Nose Day photo booth and the funniest were entered into a competition.

The owners of Enham Village Post Office and Stores had a laugh on the day, as Leslie Francis dressed as a postbox and husband Tim as the Swedish Chef from the Muppets.

Leslie said: “All cakes and toffee apples were kindly donated, photos with customers also raised some money and with a guess the weight of the cake competition, we raised £138.24 on the day.”

£63.5m was raised across the UK.