MEMBERS of the Helston and St Keverne Young Farmers' Club spent their Saturday sitting in a lay-by with a load of manure – and it was all in the name of charity.

Club members bagged up animal waste in order to sell it to the public for good causes.

The proceeds will go to the club's chosen charities this year, the Cornwall Air Ambulance Trust and the west Cornwall branch of Parkinson's UK.

The club has been raising money in this novel way for several years.

Saturday was the first of two sessions selling the dung from two lay-bys, at Sithney Common Hill and at Trevenen on the Helston to Falmouth road.

The second session will take place this coming Saturday.

Members met at Tretharrup Farm, St Martin, to bag the dung on Thursday and on Saturday all that hard work proved more than worthwhile, with the club's Alan Carter reporting they had "a good trade and a regular flow of customers".

Member Will Jenkin brought the bags to Helston on a trailer. Some members' pickup trucks were used to deliver bags around the local area to those who had ordered them during the week.

Mr Carter thanked Mike Chilcott from Mole Valley Feeds, for the bags, Rowe Farming for the boxes, the Williams family for the dung supplied from their farm and "all the members who have worked so hard.

"Without this help the dung run wouldn't happen."

Bags can still be ordered by calling 07853 881408.

By way of respite, the club's next meeting is a little less arduous; members are visiting Helston's Flora Cinema.