THE smell of orange and cocoa filled the air as almost 1,000 Terry’s Chocolate Oranges were handed out to staff at Royal Bolton Hospital.

Inspired by a similar scheme in Merseyside, accountant Debbie Croston from Bolton, took it upon herself to collect as many of the Christmas treats as she could to support the hard-working nurses at the Farnworth hospital.

Ms Croston managed to collect a whopping 912 chocolate oranges and gave them out at the hospital yesterday afternoon.

She admitted she had been “surprised” by the amount of donations she had received and hoped to building on the number in future.

She joked: “I’m really upset I couldn’t get to a thousand.”

Ms Croston appealed for people to send her the treat on Facebook and received a radio shout out too.

She has been buying them in her weekly shop and had people drop them off at the market in Westhoughton for her.

Westhoughton High School donated around 300.

Ms Croston was inspired by Chris Lamb who started giving chocolate oranges to hospital staff in St Helen’s after they cared for his son there in 2010.

Since then, his son Elliot has died, but Mr Lamb continues the tradition giving them out on what he calls “Make a Difference Friday”.

Marie Forshaw, Deputy Director of Nursing said: “It has been a pleasure to have a visit from Debbie and the students from Westhoughton High School this afternoon and a very kind gesture. Staff were very appreciative and excited to receive the chocolate oranges and pleased to have their hard work acknowledged by our local community.”