A postman from Ardrossan has been pounding the pavement to raise money for charity.

Gerry Long, the much-loved Ardrossan postie has been raising funds for STV Appeal and the Ardrossan Whitlees Community Centre by dressing up in fancy-dress to complete his daily rounds.

After dressing up as fictional characters “for a laugh” to bring some cheer into the lives of those he delivers to, Gerry decided to donate to charity when customers started offering him money.

Gerry set himself a target of raising £100 for the STV Appeal online at JustGiving and smashed it in under a week. It was slow going at first, but last week donations started to surge.

He said: “I started getting money in drips and drabs to begin with but the fundraising has really taken off today. I’ve had £137 for the online fundraiser and £275 directly to Whitlees as of today.

“It’s been good-going, big thanks to everyone who’s helped out so far.”

He has been delivering letters as Captain Jack Sparrow, a clown, a naval officer, and everybody’s favourite cartoon sailor Popeye.

Since the lockdown began Gerry had been thinking of ways to cheer up the community and for the last two weeks he has been dressing up as different characters to bring a smile to people’s faces.

Gerry hopes to continue raising money for charity as he keeps his fancy-dress campaign going. Once enough money has been collected he plans to deliver a big cheque to the Whitlees Centre to thank them for all the good work they’ve been doing.

He said: “I’m doing it for both the STV Appeal and Whitlees because then the community’s getting something and the STV Appeal too. Charities are reliant on donations and because of this situation we’re in now perhaps they’re not getting enough support where they would usually have people donating to them, so I did this to help out.”

“It’s good to see the community is still enjoying it. I’m getting thumbs up as I do my rounds and people are leaving me juice and chocolates, those kind of things.”

Gerry advises anyone who wishes to support him with his fundraising to drop some money into Whitlees directly if they’re able to or to to donate to the STV Appeal online at www.justgivving.com/fundraising/jerry-long.

STV Appeal fund projects across Scotland to help children affected by poverty.

The Whitlees Centre has been helping the community amid the Coronavirus crisis by providing 250-300 meals a day to those in need.