THE man who took over running the York RAF Association’s annual Battle of Britain Wings Appeal following his wife's death says it raised a record sum.

Ian Smith, of Stockton Lane, whose wife Maureen died of cancer earlier this year, has thanked a 'very generous' public and his collectors after a city centre collection raised £2,167 and one at the railway station raised a 'staggering' £2,939, breaking all records.

He said the branch total approached £16.5k, and he had passed the target he had set himself in Maureen's memory of £15k.