STAFF and customers at the Wilko store in Trowbridge’s Castle Place Shopping Centre are celebrating raising more than £3,500 for the RSPCA over the past year.

Money was raised through a range of events held in the store, including cake sales, book sales and animal-themed dress up days. The staff team also held a competition where customers submitted pictures of their pets and hosted a skittles evening in the store.

The RSPCA, which is the store’s regional charity of the year, specialises in rescue, animal welfare and preventing animal cruelty, with the donations helping the charity’s Networking Animals project.

Animals are transported to different parts of the country as part of the project to boost their chances of finding a forever home, with the money covering the costs of running one of the RSPCA’s networking vans for more than one month.

Keith Rooms, store manager of Wilko in Trowbridge, said: “What a fantastic year we’ve had raising money for RSPCA – we’ve proved that where there’s a Wilko, there’s a way to support good causes in our area.

“We were inspired to support this charity because it does so much good in the community, and it’s been so rewarding. The whole team has had a lot of fun on our various fundraisers and everyone got right into the charitable spirit.

“We couldn’t have raised such a brilliant amount without the help of our loyal customers, who kindly reached into their pockets and gave whatever they could to help our charity of the year.”