VOLUNTEERS and staff from the Great North Air Ambulance visited Darlington's Marks and Spencer store at the weekend to raise funds.

They were in the Northgate store all day on Saturday helping customers with bag packing in return for donations to support the work of the air ambulance.

The shop is inviting a different local charity into the store each week up to Christmas to raise money through bag packing.

This follows a similar scheme last year when about £5,000 was raised for local charities in the run-up to Christmas.

Store manager Elaine Smith said: "We like to do our bit to help local charities, especially at Christmas. The Great North Air Ambulance launched its second helicopter back in March, so we are doing our bit to help it get off the ground.

"We hope our customers will also enjoy the extra luxury of having some help with packing all their Christmas shopping."