COMMUNITY spirited posties in Taunton have just made a special delivery following their latest fun fundraising efforts.

Over three weeks this summer, six of them pushed mail through people's letterboxes wearing fancy dress.

Customers loved it - and handed over £3,582.35 in sponsorship, which the posties have now handed over to Bishop's Hull-based St Margaret's Hospice Care.

The posties have now raised an incredible £11,777.35 since the first lockdown last year.

Many of the team based at the Royal Mail sorting office slipped into fancy dress to cheer people up during the early days of the pandemic, raising a massive £5,500 in four weeks for Love Musgrove Covid-19 Response.

Other activities included a convoy of posties making a surprise call with 11 Royal Mail delivery vans to deliver several parcels to 12-year-old Ella Bale at her home in Creech Heathfield ahead of heart surgery.

At Christmas, the team dressed as elves to collect children's letters to Santa and return a reply the following day.

Over the festive period they also raised £2,695 for homeless charity Arc and the Canon Group Project so people who are homeless could tuck into a Christmas lunch, as well as donating trays of books to the charities.

At the same time, the posties collected bags of food, presents, a sofa, bedding and carpets for a single mum and her two children after the family lost everything after falling on hard times.

Postie Evette Chapman who has organised the fundraising said: "The whole idea at the start was to help raise money for local charities in Taunton and to keep our customers smiling as it brings so much joy to people.

"Since then we have carried it on and continued to have a great response and it's been very heart warming.

"The amounts raised just shows how much our customers love it.

"We are so grateful for the public's support and generous donations for all the charities since we started.

"I'm proud of the money we've raised, but without our customers' support, we couldn't have done it."