MORE than 1,500 meals will be provided to local families thanks to the charitable efforts of staff from Furness General Hospital.

Medical professionals handed over the haul of food to Barrow's Food Bank after completing a reverse advent calendar over the past few weeks.

It comes as The Mail's Feed our Foodbank campaign, which aims to fill the shelves of the foodbank, gathers momentum.

Rachel Moss, theatre clinical manager at Furness General Hospital, said: “Many of us get an advent calendar, or buy one for our children, so we decided that this year we would do a reverse advent calendar; so instead of getting a piece of chocolate every day, each day we would bring in an item of food for the Barrow Food Bank.

"We started in the middle of November, so that we would have a good collection in time for Christmas."

She added: "The staff have been amazing and really enthusiastic about it.

"It started off just in the department, and then when word got around, family and friends contributed, along with surgeons, anaesthetists and retired theatre staff.

"I didn’t expect to collect as much as we did and I feel extremely proud of the team.

“The food bank weighed in our contributions and the total weight was 693.9kg, which means we are able to provide local families with 1,652 meals.”