IF you want to get ahead, get a hat... and if you want a hat be in Lydney on October 10.

Upwards of 200 will be displayed on poles in shops up and down the town – and they will all be available by simply buying a tombola ticket from the Great Oaks Dean Forest Hospice shop.

The idea is that once you have purchased your numbered ticket you find the corresponding hat and wear it for the rest of the day!

Fundraiser Gayna Awege-Elkington already has 112 hats stacked away in her attic. They include a fez, a workman's hard hat, baseball caps, straw hats, cycle helmets and even a couple of very fetching designer-made and very expensive wedding hats.

Gayna explained: "October 10 is World Hospice Day and we are tying up with the Co-op to collect hats to display on poles around shops in Lydney. People will be able to buy a ticket and win a hat which they will then wear round the town."

Meanwhile more hats are needed – if you can, help drop by the Lydney Hospice Shop between now until mid-September.