Woman celebrates 80 years of selling poppies

Vera Parnaby started selling poppies when she was five years old

A great-grandmother is celebrating 80 years as a poppy-seller after starting at the age of five.

Vera Parnaby, 85, from Consett in County Durham, has raised more than £1m for the Royal British Legion (RBL) and is one of the UK's longest-serving poppy sellers.

Mrs Parnaby, known locally as "Mrs Poppy", started selling the commemorative flower in honour of her father who was killed in a road accident on a British Army base during World War Two.

Having organised the town's appeal for nearly 30 years, she said she did not plan to give up "doing her bit".

Mrs Parnaby's father died when she was three.

She, her sister and two brothers were brought up in Annfield Plain by their mother, Elizabeth, who helped launch the women's section of the RBL and sold poppies with her children.

Vera Parnaby's father (front row, left) died during World War Two when she was three years old

Mrs Parnaby now marshals an army of local volunteers in Consett.

"Twenty-nine years ago, I was asked to take over the organising of the poppy appeal in Consett, which I’ve done every year since," she said.

"For the last four years we have had contactless machines, so we catch people who don’t have cash."

She added she was determined to continue selling poppies.

"I don’t think I would give up helping the poppy appeal," she said.

"I would still do my bit even if it wasn’t organising."