Northwich girl raises money for Ukraine by selling old toys

Seven-year-old Martha Storey of Davenham came up with the idea on Mother's Day.

Mum Alex explained how Martha suggested selling some of her toys, after noticing she had so many.

Alex said: "On Sunday morning she said 'wouldn't it be nice to sell some toys mummy and we can send the money to the Ukraine'.

"We haven't been telling them too much about it (the crisis) but I think they've been talking about it a bit in school.

"She started sorting through her toys and because she's learning about money too, she was even pricing everything herself, although some of them I did have to slightly tweak!"

Martha Storey decided to sell some of her old toys to raise money for the people of Ukraine

Martha did the same with some of her brother Freddie's toys as well and by mid-morning, she had arranged the items on a table on the driveway of the family home.

"There's a really good community spirit in Davenham," Alex added.

"And where we live, there is a lot of passing traffic and footfall.

"We even have a local WhatsApp chat we set up during lockdown in 2020, so a lot of people on that were made aware of it.

"Within about half an hour we were getting people we'd never met before walking passed and giving us donations."

Martha Stoery was joined by her friend Florence Hodson who sold some of her toys too

Martha made about £250 on the day itself but because her dad Ian had posted about it on Facebook and set up a JustGiving page, many more people began to make pledges of support.

"We had no idea it would become so big," she said.

"Ian had said in passing in the morning that whatever she made we would match it.

"We run an estate agents in Davenham, so we've said now we'll match it up to £1,000.

"We're just so proud of her for coming up with the idea and she even got an award from her headteacher.

"She's always been very thoughtul and kind and she's already saying she wants to do something like this every weekend now!"

Joanne Hyslop, head teacher from Davenham Primary, said: "I’m very proud of Martha and hugely impressed by the huge amount of money she’s raised.

"But what I am most proud of is the fact it was all Martha’s idea."

Martha Storey was given a head teacher's award for her kind efforts

You can contribute to Martha's Toy Shop fund via the JustGiving page: justgiving.com/fundraising/marthastoyshop