Linda's poppy power raises cash for Royal British Legion

Four years later, the mother of three from Bilston has completed almost 10,000 of them and raised more than £13,000 for the Royal British Legion Poppy Day Appeal.

The 62 year old, whose oldest son Simon served with the Red Arrows during 23 years in the RAF, explained: "It was easy for me to make the first one one my auntie because I remembered the pattern for a poppy broach I had produced for a church coffee morning, remembered the pattern and just added a silk leaf. She was delighted and so were many others when they saw it. The phone has not stopped ringing ever since."

She made a handful the first year, produced 1,000 poppies 12 months later and 3,000 last year. All were offered for sale at various outlets, most notably Hobbycraft in Wednesfield who donated the red and black wool needed for the project.

This year, Mrs Evans, assisted by her aunt Kath Guest and friends Debbie Guest and Mary Timmins made more than 5,800 which were all snapped up, raising £5,831.50p for the Brewood and District Poppy Appeal.

Mrs Evans, who has donated to the Appeal in both Bilston and Wednesfield in the past, said: "It is like a mini production line. Mary and I do the knitting, Debbie sews and Kath finishes the poppy off with the silk leaf and pin. Each one takes around 25 minutes to make from scratch.

"I knit 100 at a time and started the first one for this year on Christmas Eve while being driven up to Scotland. I always travel with my knitting and there were 4,000 at my house by the time we launched them in September. They were bought as far afield as America and I have already got 500 orders for next year. Luckily I enjoy knitting."

The poppies were sold through shops, pubs and social networking sites like Facebook and Mrs Evans has just handed over her bumper cheque to Trevor Abbotts, chairman of the Brewood and District Royal British Legion branch and the Poppy Day collection organiser for the village along with neighbouring Coven, Bishops Wood and Wheaton Aston.

Mr Abbotts said: "I have been an organiser for over 20 years and this is by far the single biggest donation I have ever received. It is a fantastic achievement and has almost double our collection figure for this year at a stroke."