ST John Ambulance is to mark a special day by lighting up several York landmarks in green this evening.

A spokesman said the charity was originally planning to celebrate St John's Day and the work of its volunteers with a service at St Paul's Cathedral attended by 2,000 - but then the coronavirus pandemic arrived.

Now it was planning to light up landmark buildings around the country including York's city walls, the Millennium Bridge and St Peter’s School.

"Green is of course one of the colours of the St John Ambulance uniform that our current volunteers wear," he said.

He added that had St John Ambulance refocused its entire operation recently on supporting the NHS in the fight against Covid-19.

"This is a role that we are still carrying out, and our volunteers have now given well in excess of 100,000 hours of their time working in emergency departments, crewing ambulances and performing many other essential functions. "If readers would like to support us at this critical time, while our usual funds are still hugely disrupted, they can visit www.sja.org.uk to make a donation to our Emergency Appeal. We would appreciate any assistance, whatever the amount."