Two local boys chose to raise £600 for charity after being offered gifts and donations for another good deed earlier in the year. 

The two brothers from Stoke-on-Trent, 13-year-old Preston and seven-year-old George gained local acclaim when they were caught refilling empty trick-or-treat buckets with their own sweets on a doorbell camera. 

When the boys' act of kindness was shared on a Smallthorne social media group, residents reached out to offer gifts and rewards. 

The family received an £80 toy voucher and tickets for Alton Towers in the new year, but local people continued to message offering to donate money for Preston and George at Christmas.

The boys chose to instead ask local people to donate to a GoFundMe which would help support struggling members of the community. 

Lisa Woodcock, the boys' mother, said: "I'd had a few messages from local people asking if we had thought about creating a GoFundMe for the boys so they could have a really good Christmas.  

"But they are fortunate and get loads of stuff at Christmas so when I spoke to them about it George asked why don't we try to help other people?  

Preston and George made a large donation to the Salvation Army food bank (image via Lisa Woodcock)

"It just started off as something small to just see how far we could get but with the help of local people it blew up and we managed to raise £600 for different charities and organisations."  

After raising £600, the family were able to support a range of campaigns and charities who support vulnerable people across Stoke-on-Trent.

The money raised by the GoFundMe supported the following campaigns and organisations: 

• The Excel Academy advent calendar collection
• The Burslem Community Grocery Store Christmas hamper campaign
• Dunelm 'delivering joy' gift tags for two young children and two elderly ladies. 
• Stoke Homeless Outreach campaigns. 
• The Community Can (Tunstall Market) blessings bags campaign
• The Stoke Toy Appeal.
• The Salvation Army Food bank.

Lisa explained how proud she is of the boys and how thankful she is to the local community for all their support.

She said: "We are really proud of them. 

"They are really kind children and it's just nice that other people have been able to see that outside of our families and friends. 

"But it also wouldn't have been possible without the local community so it is thanks to them, as well as family and friends, that we were able to raise as much as we did." 

Preston and George were also proud of the contribution they were able to make to the community, and excited about their social media popularity. 

The family donated blessings bags to the COmmunity Can in Tunstall Market (image via Lisa Woodcock)

Lisa added: "They are really proud of themselves, but I think they have been a bit surprised by it as well. They didn't expect it. 

"They were obviously really excited that somebody had caught them on camera and they were really excited by all of the comments and likes. 

"They felt like they had gone a bit Facebook famous, they kept saying they had gone viral." 

The family want to thank the local community, family and friends, and the resident who posted the boys' kind deed on Halloween. 

Lisa said: "It wouldn't have started at all without that lady posting the Ring doorbell footage. 

"It just goes to show that something as simple as that can turn into something as big as this."