BOLTON Rotarians are not letting the coronavirus pandemic halt their charitable work and are pouring their heart and sole into a project to recycle used shoes.

Together with 35 other Rotary Clubs in the North West, more than 100 Rotarians from the Bolton area have been urging friends and family to delve into cupboards and retrieve footwear which is no longer wanted.

Shoes of all kinds and sizes, from wellingtons and sports shoes to high fashion items are then donated to the Midlands-based charity Shoe Aid, who then clean them, box them up and redistribute them to needy people in the UK and overseas.

Thousands of pairs have been collected in Bolton alone already and the charity has sent out more than half a million items to needy people.

Rotary's usual charity work involving face-to-face contact is currently restricted and is having a major impact on what they can achieve.

But Peter Jones, president of the Bolton Daybreak Rotary Club, is delighted with the efforts being made his club and Rotary members in Bolton Lever, Bolton with Le Moors, Horwich, Turton and Westhoughton.

He said: “We are all very frustrated that many of our usual projects have been curtailed, but this is something which is urgently needed, and which can be safely done in spite of the pandemic.”