The Staffordshire poppy badges people are hunting down

What started as a simple fundraising idea has turned into an unlikely local collector craze.

Across north Staffordshire, people are hunting down poppy pin badges featuring everything from bottle kilns and Spitfires to rubber ducks in a bid to complete their collections.

The badges, designed by retired firefighter Kelvin Chell, have raised more than £140,000 for the Royal British Legion over the past five years.

Chell, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, came up with the idea after spotting a firefighter wearing a bespoke poppy badge at a meeting.

"He got some made for us, which we sold, and it went really well," he said.

Since then, Chell has created 19 Staffordshire-themed designs, which are now sold in pubs and shops across the area.

Demand has grown so much that he said collectors travel between venues in search of missing badges.

"People are hunting them down," he said. "They started chasing from shop to shop, pub to pub, hoping to find the one missing from their collection."

The designs combine the traditional poppy with symbols associated with Staffordshire, including the Staffordshire knot, bottle kilns, Spitfires and rubber ducks.

Even more surprising, Chell said, is the number of younger people getting interested in them

"Younger people are getting involved, and they are tending now to go for the different types of poppies," he said.

"The amount of children who are buying them to wear at school is amazing."

The badges have helped raise more than £140,000 for the legion since the project began, including more than £50,000 last year alone.

North Staffordshire Poppy Appeal manager Mark Smith said support in the area remained strong for the campaign.

"It is just incredible. The generosity - particularly of Stokies - is amazing," he said.

Chell hopes this year's latest designs will raise a further £25,000.

"I'm lucky, I haven't had to fight in a war," he said.

"If it wasn't for those ladies, gentlemen and even animals, where would we be today? We just don't know."

What began as a one-off fundraising idea has grown into something far bigger than he ever imagined.

"I never, ever thought I'd come to this level of fundraising," he said. "It was just a one-off really."

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