£3,000 raised by selling 1,500 poppies crocheted to celebrate 70th birthday

So she used her interest in crafts to make 1,500 crochet poppies to raise money for Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion.

The former bespoke tailor from Watling Street, Brownhills, had initially planned on making 1,000 – but due to the sheer demand for her wares she went on to create hundreds more.

It took around 25 minutes to make each one and Mrs Copland would turn her hand to the creations while she was watching TV.

She started in January and completed the first batch in the summer, then spent several months afterwards completing the other 500. They proved so popular some ended up in her native Scotland and others as far afield as Australia as friends of friends spread the word and helped sell them.

Others got on board, such as the Waterside pub in Brownhills, and all helped her to raise more than £3,000 for the two worthy causes.

The grandmother-of-one said she enjoyed doing something to help a good cause.

She said: "It was my 70th birthday on November 11, on Armistice Day, so I thought because it is a special birthday I would do something special."

She added: "I did 1,000 and they all sold, so I had to do another 500. Some went to Scotland, some went to Australia and some went all around here.

"I gave some to different friends and then they sold them. I am very much a craft person. I enjoyed doing it and it was for a good cause," she added.

And she said she was thrilled that people had been pleased with her efforts.

She went on to say: "The reaction has been absolutely brilliant. I had people stop me in the street, when I was wearing them, and people said how lovely they were."

She moved to Brownhills in the early 1970s having arrived in Birmingham in the mid 1960s from her native Aberdeenshire.