AN ADVICE charity overwhelmed by demand has received a donation to extend its hours so volunteers can be properly monitored by staff.

Abingdon Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), which offers residents a helping hand through a host of problems including debt, has been given a £2,500 boost from Abingdon Lions Club.

The cash will enable the CAB to extend staff members' working hours to deal with an influx of residents requiring its services.

Lions president Ron Skinner said: "This particular centre is very busy.

"The fund will pay staff to monitor volunteers after normal working hours – they needed funds to help cover those extra hours."

The donation coincides with the 100th anniversary year of the international Lions club charity, although the Abingdon branch of the charity was only set up in 1981.

Father-of-two Mr Skinner said: "I felt the CAB was doing our job, giving people support and pointing people in the right direction.

"We thought their contribution to the community was an extension of what we were doing."

The centenary celebrations has seen Abingdon Lions support several causes this year, including paying for a trip for 60 young carers to Cotswold Wildlife Park near Burford.

Earlier this year it also funded an £830 defibrillator, which was installed outside Wildwood restaurant in Bury Street, one of eight of the life saving devices now in place in the town.

Mr Skinner, 71, completed a 16-day trek across Nepal at the age of 68 to raise more than £1,000 for Maggie's Oxford Centre, which supports people who have cancer.

And last year he parachuted from 10,000ft to support staff at the base at the Churchill Hospital in Headington.

The pensioner was inspired by witnessing the opening of the centre in 2014 and has made it his mission for raise funds ever since.

The Citizens Advice branch, based in New Abbey House, Abbey Close, is open Monday to Friday.

The branch is open 10am to 1pm most working days plus 1.30pm to 6pm on Mondays, 1.30pm to 3.30pm on Wednesdays, and 1.30pm to 4.30pm on Thursdays.

No one from Abingdon Citizen Advice Bureau was available for comment.