Former Pars and Kelty star makes festive delivery to Victoria Hospital

Over £3,500 worth of presents were dropped off by the former Dunfermline and Kelty star, his wife Lucy and young children Josie-Anne and Lyla-Jo.

The family have fundraised and collected items to be donated to the Vic's children's ward following the birth of Lyla-Jo.

She arrived eight weeks prematurely, weighing just 3lbs 6ozs, and her parents went through the trauma of not being able to take her home while she was being looked after at the Special Care Baby Unit for three weeks.

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They then decided to raise money for the fitting and maintenance of baby cams in premature baby incubators, before continuing to offer their support by organising collections at Christmas and Easter.

Joe, who runs the Joe Cardle Academy, was delighted to drop off the latest donations.

"It was a special day for us," he said. "It is something in the calendar we look forward to. Every year we try and get more money and collections. This year we got more than £3,500 worth of toys, it is an incredible achievement.

"We have got a lot of experience of the hospital when my little one was born and we had a bit of trouble in the summer and they looked after her then too "It is now a tradition for the family and it was special going back here on Friday. The nurses, they cannot thank us enough."

Joe paid tribute to wife Lucy who he said "does all the work" behind the scenes to ensure that their festive appeal is a success.

"This year we had the raffle, and we managed to put on a free football camp which we held in November. Anyone who participated put in a donation and that raised a lot of money as well," he added. "Between the two, we managed to raise over £3,500.

"It is something we like to do and we will always carry on that tradition. The spare room has been like Santa's grotto so it is nice to hand it over and look forward to Christmas."