Gromits help to raise £3.8m for sick children

He was the must-see sensation of last summer and today we found out just how much our fascination with Aardman Animation's Gromit was worth £3.8 million.

That's the huge total the Grand Appeal has been able to hand over to Bristol Children's Hospital which treats patients from all over the South West.

Richard Payne reports:-

Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal has raised £3.8m towards the expansion of Bristol Children's Hospital - exceeding its initial target by £300,000.

Three year old Jessica Abrahams, an oncology patient at the hospital, visited the new Children’s Cancer Unit today to view new facilities funded by the appeal.

During her treatment last summer, Jessica and her family visited all 80 giant Gromits in Bristol on a sponsored hunt. It raised £2,800 for the charity.

Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal has raised £3.8m towards the expansion of Bristol Children's Hospital - exceeding its initial target by £300,000.

The charity is now launching a second phase of fundraising to raise an additional £1.2 million for pioneering equipment and services, to bring the total to £5m.

The appeal was boosted by the hugely popular Gromit Unleashed trail, which saw 80 giant Gromits scattered around Bristol last summer.

The sculptures were auctioned off in October for a total of £2.3m, with one Gromit selling for a staggering £65,000.

Since then, miniature Gromit figurines have been sold at the charity's Cribbs Causeway store. Customers were spending an average of £5,000 per day on merchandise.

Organisers of the Gromit Trail say more than a million people visited this summer bringing around £120 miillion to the city.

Now, after its huge success, it's been revealed that the team behind the models hope to roll out a similar idea in 2015, with another of their characters.

Katie Rowlett reports.

Figures out today show 225,000 more people visited Bristol's attractions than normal during the Gromit Unleashed Art Trail. Julie Finch, the Head of Museums, Galleries and Archives in Bristol, talks about how it's changed Bristolian attitudes.

As organisers of the Gromit trail in Bristol announce that it brought around £120 million into the city, news comes of plans for a new trail in 2015 with another Aardman favourite, Shaun the Sheep.

Here's Lucy Wendover from Bristol's Aardman Animations.

Organisers of Gromit Unleashed say nearly 1.2 million people visited the trail and exhibition this year, contributing £120 million to the Bristol economy.

According to their research, just over half the visitors were from Bristol, two per cent from abroad, and the rest from other parts of the UK.

And organisers have revealed they are working on a new idea for 2015 involving another Aardman Animations character, Shaun the Sheep.

Last week the auction of the Gromit statues raised £2.3 million for Bristol Children's Hospital.

The most expensive Gromit was sold for a staggering £65,000 thousand pounds.

Some of the lucky bidders have been taking delivery of the dogs that have won thousands of hearts.

Richard Payne reports.

The University of the West of England won a Gromit statue with a successful bid of £23,000 at last night's auction.

'Sheepdog' is a Trojan horse style Gromit, with a view of one Aardman's other famous characters - Shaun the Sheep - operating it inside.

The auction raised £2.3 million towards Bristol Children's Hospital.

An auction of 81 Gromit statues raised more than £2 million for Bristol Children's Hospital last.

The most expensive Gromit sold for a staggering 65 thousand pounds.

Richard Payne spoke Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park about the event's success: