A father from Hadleigh has taken his Christmas decorations up a notch this year – and will be raising money for charity in the process.

East Anglian Daily Times: Kieron Ruddy is lighting up his house for the Brendan Oakes Trust. Kieron with his son Jayden.Kieron Ruddy is lighting up his house for the Brendan Oakes Trust. Kieron with his son Jayden. (Image: Sarah Lucy brown)

Keiron Ruddy, aided by friends, strung up around 50 sets of twinkling lights at his Long Bessels home at the end of November and has put a special postbox in place, with donations going to The Brendan Oakes Trust.

“Last year we had some lights up on the front, and when you were sitting in the lounge you could hear the little kids walking past because they liked the lights. One of my friends does a lot of fundraising for Brendan Oakes so I thought, right, this year we’ll go for it, and that’s what we’ve done.”

Friend Mark Snowling helped Kieron to place many of the lights and Kieron also expressed gratitude to councillor Brian Riley. “We have a street lamp in the garden and I was trying to get Suffolk Highways to get it turned off. Brian took it to the head of highways Richard Webster and within five minutes he agreed to turn them off. If it wasn’t for Brian stepping in I would never have had Richard Webster involved.

“I also had Trevor Clarke helping to get all the bits I needed from Partridges, and Scott Bordley from B&R Bodyworks put in all the electrics to help. It’s not a cheap exercise. We had to put in a separate fuse box to put up with the lights – and all new plugs.

“The best part is Elliot Brown from Hemp Scaffolding. He’s a star because we were trying to get scaffolding for the extra lights and he agreed to help and didn’t ask for a penny. Noone has asked for a single penny who has helped. It’s nice to know there are people around who will go the extra mile.”

Kieron’s employer, TMI Highways, even gave him a free day off to assemble the lights.

The Christmas lights at Long Bessels will be turned on from 4.30pm to 10pm each evening until January 1. There is a donations post box on site for visitors to contribute to and at least £100 has been raised so far.