TWO pensioners are celebrating after their fundraising work drove the Poppy Appeal in Orpington to a record high.

John and Linda Perry have discovered the £38,505 they helped raise in November for The Royal British Legion was the most ever collected in Orpington during the annual Poppy Appeal.

Mr and Mrs Perry, aged 78 and 75, who live in Chalk Pit Avenue in Orpington, led a team of four other collectors in the record-breaking fundraising campaign.

Mr Perry, who is Poppy Appeal organiser for Orpington and has been fundraising for nine years, said: “I divided Orpington into four sections with a collector for each section.

“It’s these four people - Bob Andrews, Johnny Lynch, Tony O’Keefe and Chris Tyler - who I have to thank for raising this amount of money.”