A LOWDHAM newsagent has added a special new item to its shelves among the usual papers, magazines and sweets – miniature golden postboxes.
Station News started selling the novelty money boxes after the village's postbox was painted gold to celebrate the success of Lowdham Paralympic gold medal winner Richard Whitehead.
Richard and Tina Manning, owners of the shop in Station Road, said they were thrilled by sales and planned to donate the proceeds to charity.
Mr Manning, 49, said: "Richard Whitehead's mum and dad live just down the road from the shop and pop in regularly.
"As a bit of a joke I got one of these mini postboxes that are also little money boxes, and spray-painted it gold.
"I put it on the counter and then it started to get lots of attention.
"Customers kept asking if they could buy them, so I decided to start making them in bulk. So far we have sold 205 and I have just bought another batch of 60.
"They were originally priced at £7.50 but then Richard started signing some of them so we raised the price to £10. They are going very quickly."
Mr Manning added: "Because they have become so popular I have enlisted the help of a car garage in Gunthorpe to spray-paint them for me."
The postboxes, which are about six inches tall, cost Mr Manning around £3 to £4 to produce.
He said that all the profit made would be donated to cancer charity Sarcoma UK, a charity for people with bone and soft tissue cancer.
He said: "A few years ago Richard lost a friend to cancer so we thought it would be fitting to donate to this charity.
"We hope to raise at least £1,000 and are planning to present a cheque to the charity in mid November in the WI hall in the village."
