A FAMILY’S love of hard-working donkeys saw a popular yard sale up sticks and move to an Old Town location for its biggest sale yet.

Yasmin Fattori normally hosts the yard sale in the back garden of the family’s West Swindon home under the canvas of a huge marque. But this year she decided to bring the sale into Old Town to drum up even more support for The Donkey Sanctuary.

The event is always staged on the May Day bank holiday and this year generous shoppers who visited the yard sale at Christ Church helped raise more than £1,000 for the sanctuary, which is near Sidmouth in Devon and was founded in 1969.

Yasmin, who has been running her own business Yoga With Yasmin for 20 years, decided to host the sale at Christ Church for the venture’s third year, after moving all of her yoga sessions there last year.

“We didn’t know how it was going to work out, but we grew with the venue and set up a donkey café inside alongside our donkey boutique,” she said.

“The Donkey Sanctuary is such a worthwhile cause, which in the past has been overlooked, though in recent years people are starting to take notice more.

“In the past when I have asked people to support The Donkey Sanctuary and give money they ask why they should support an animal charity when there are so many people in the world needing help.

“But for people in poorer countries the donkey really is their most valuable asset. If they are educated about their donkeys – which The Donkey Sanctuary does – they learn that if they look after them they are looking after themselves too.

“At Christmas we adopted several donkeys for members of the family – there are now nine in our family.

"It’s wonderful, they keep you in the loop and tell you how the money is being spent as well as sending you pictures and footage from web cameras.”

Yasmin is already taking bookings for next year’s event, which will once again be held on the May Day bank holiday.

Further details about the sanctuary at www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk