RAF veterans are urging York residents to dig deep and help out our airmen and women as the country marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

Members of the York branch of the Royal Air Force Association are preparing to take its annual Wings Appeal on to the streets of York city centre, along with Monks Cross, the railway station and a supermarket.

The branch's new appeal organiser, Maureen Smith, who formerly served in the Women's Royal Air Force, says she hopes they can beat the £5,200 raised in last year's appeal.

She said the appeal raised funds to provide welfare and support to members of the RAF and their families past and present, in times of hardship.

It funded respite breaks for people with medical or welfare needs, provides sheltered housing and provides advice and support, paying 26,000 welfare visits each year.

"I hope people will be particularly generous this year, as it's 75 years since the Battle of Britain," she said.

However, she stressed that the association helped members of the RAF who have been involved in all conflicts, and not just the Second World War - right up to Iraq and Afghanistan in recent times.

The association's collectors will be out at Monks Cross on Saturday September 12 and in the city centre the following Saturday. They will also be at York Railway Station from September 14 to 16 and Morrison's supermarket in Foss Islands Road on September 15.

Branch vice-president Ray Kidd said they had already been collecting in the Coppergate centre, and he had been touched when a foreign visitor had come up and asked if they could make a donation in Euros, to thank the RAF for what it had done for their country during the war.

Maureen said that she and her husband Ian, who assists her in organising the appeal, would be attending a service to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle on September 15 at St Paul's Cathedral in London.

She said the branch did not have any Battle of Britain veterans amongst its members, but it still had several veterans from the Second World War - Lancaster bomber pilots Robert 'Mac' Mathieson and Peter Parker, Lancaster flight engineer Norman Berryman, and Geoff Orme, a navigator on a Mosquito.