How Mike raised more than £100,000 for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal in Birmingham

He has raised more than £100,000 for the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal in Birmingham.

Now Mike Devlin has been honoured with an award from Birmingham’s Lord Mayor. Mike, from Shard End, has been a British Legion volunteer for 20 years, during which time he has raised £119,000 by collecting donations at his local Morrisons supermarket.

Mr Devlin has also organised the Remembrance Day Parade for the past three years and doesn’t intend to stop, with plans for this year already underway. For two weeks leading up to the WW1 memorial, Mr Devlin and a crew of locals, including Councillor Ian Ward (Lab, Shard End) and Liam Byrne MP (Lab, Hodge Hill), sell poppies from the busy shop in shifts.

Speaking with the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) at the Shard End ward meeting on Monday (June 26) Mike said, “I was chuffed!” with the recognition. He added: “It’s two weeks of hard work [a year].”

Mike spoke about the kinds of people who donate and how it’s changed over the years since he began collecting. He said: “There’s a lot of old people, but quite a lot of young people and people that sometimes don’t even have the poppy, they just put money in the tin.” He explained last year was his best year yet, with £16,309 raised, up from £14k the year before.

He has been recognised for his hard work with an award which was presented to him in a recent ceremony by the Lord Mayor Chaman Lal and was congratulated by Coun Ian Ward at Monday’s meeting.