CHRISTCHURCH Mayor Cllr Sue Spittle will be wearing her poppy with pride in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday.

The mayor launched the Poppy Appeal in Saxon Square yesterday and will be laying a wreath in the Priory at 10.50am on November 14.

Betty Newman, who is the poppy organiser for the Christchurch branch of the Royal British Legion, said 12 collectors would be selling poppies in Saxon Square and the High Street and another dozen would be calling door-to-door.

Other poppy sellers will be in the Pioneer and Somerfield stores and the Stony Lane branch of B&Q.

In 2003, £3,000 was collected in the B&Q store.

"Last year in Christchurch we raised £18,700," said Mrs Newman.

"I'm hoping to beat it this year, if I can."

Money raised will go to help former service personnel and their families.

"We've got a good welfare committee and we do a lot of welfare work in Christchurch and it's lovely when you get a letter saying 'Thank you' for the holiday, the wheelchair or for the rest break," said Mrs Newman.

Dorset county's appeal was launched on the same day at Swanage Railway station with BBC South's presenter Lucy Jackson, who read the First World War poem In Flanders Fields.

Children from Swanage First School read The Victory Emblem and the county president of the Royal British Legion, Major General Richard Keightley, spoke the exhortation.

Organiser Nick Arnold said: "It was an excellent ceremony, and we just missed the bad weather.

"We had just finished when it started to rain."

Many standard bearers, with standards including the county and county union flag, were also there.

Poppies will now be on sale in Dorset from today until November 13.

First published: October 30