Staff from an Ellesmere Port hotel took part in a sponsored sleep-out on Saturday night to raise money for charity.

Holiday Inn employees Amy Jones, Charlotte Knowles, Paul Morris and Anna Whelan slept outside the hotel to raise money for Soul Kitchen Chester, a charity dedicated to help feed homeless people in Chester.

The aim of the sleep-out was to raise £480 to cover the cost of Soul Kitchen’s rent for the next 12 months.

Amy, the conference and events coordinator at the Holiday Inn, said: “As we were getting closer to the date, we noticed it was going to be an extremely cold night. If anything that made us more determined as we really wanted to experience how bad it could be for people sleeping on the streets and just to make us truly appreciate organisations like Chester Soul Kitchen who help these people.

“We have now raised £647 which we are so pleased about and would just like to thank everyone who has donated so far. It would be great to see if we could make it to £720 to cover their rent for 18 months.”

Accounts assistant Charlotte added: “As a business we have decided to support various different homeless charities this year.

“Throughout the year we have organised a number of events to raise funds and donations for these charities with the help of the general public. Our biggest drive has been collecting items of clothing, blankets, sleeping bags, toiletries and food for us to distribute around the streets of Chester, Liverpool and surrounding areas.”

Over the last couple of months the hotel has also been doing a homeless Christmas shoebox appeal collecting items such as deodorant, sanitary towels, baby wipes, gloves, hats and scarves.

“If anyone would like to create their own shoebox please pop all the items in a box, wrap it up and hand it in to reception at our hotel by the end of the week,” Amy added.

The Holiday Inn team set up a Go Fund Me page for the sleep-out which is still open.

To donate visit https://www.gofundme.com/holidayinnellesmereportsleepout.