BEING crafty has led to a Kidderminster woman raising more than £12,000 for the town's hospital.

Jean Armishaw is passionate about any kind of craft and since 1997 has been selling her handiwork on stalls to raise money for Kidderminster Hospital's League of Friends.

She has occasional stalls at the hospital and in the Swan Centre in Kidderminster, displaying an array of crafts including wooden clocks etched using pyrography, knitted hats, dyed silk scarves and mountains of colourful cushions.

The nimble-fingered former Birchen Coppice Middle School teacher, of Snowdon Close, has made all the items herself.

She can be seen knitting constantly while running the stall and admits to always being busy with some kind of craftwork at home, whether painting, design or embroidery.

Mrs Armishaw said: "I made 18 cushion covers one afternoon. I had to stop because my fingertips were sore."

There is just one craft she does not like - crochet - so friend, Marie Beahan, of Trimpley Drive, makes the blankets for the stall.

With her help, Mrs Armishaw raised £2,630 for the League of Friends during 2002 and, with what she collected during 2003, she will have totalled £12,500 since she started in 1997.

She began raising the money for the hospital after a spell as an in-patient suffering with asthma.