A HUSBAND and wife team from the Red Lion Hotel, Westhoughton, are being tipped as hot favourites for the title of the biggest-hearted licensees in the country.

George and Gina Tipton, pictured right, mine hosts at the Wigan Road pub, have been nominated for the prestigious National Heart of the Community Award, which has a top prize of £10,000.

They are well known for their generosity towards local senior citizens and have already won two similar awards from Greenalls.

Every year the Tiptons organise two free bumper events for the pensioners: a day trip and a slap up Christmas dinner. Last year they took 65 pensioners to Southport and treated them to a dinner at The Red Lion.

Mr Tipton, a member of the local Rotary Club, said: "At Christmas we gave 68 pensioners a three-course turkey dinner in our function room with live entertainment and a free raffle for a host of big prizes."

Last year the Tiptons hired a double decker bus and took 65 children to Liverpool Pleasure Land.

A brewery spokesman said: "George and Gina can always make time to do a good turn within their community, turning their attention on the young as well as the senior citizens around them."

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