HUNDREDS of people turned out for the chance to see Worcester’s giraffes all gathered together in one place for a farewell display at the cathedral.

The giraffes, 30 large and 27 small ones, were all on show in Worcester Cathedral’s atmospheric chapter house from Thursday until Sunday. They had been in locations across the city centre during this summer’s trail.

The giraffes were created for the St Richard’s Hospice Worcester Stands Tall campaign, part of its Build 2020 fundraising appeal, which aims to finance a £5.3m expansion and redevelopment to support more patients and families.

They were decorated by artists associated with the city and by local schools and other groups.

Tricia Cavell of the hospice said: “The reaction to Worcester Stands Tall has been absolutely fabulous.

“We had 5,000 downloads of our app, and we have recorded about 200,000 ‘unlocks’ on the app, when people visited each giraffe.

“Lots of children came into our pop-up shop at Crowngate with their activity books completed, and on social media we have had hundreds of thousands of retweets, shares and so on.

“The exhibition here at the cathedral has also been a great success. If we had known how many people wanted to see them, we could probably have made the exhibition a week long.

“Our planned redevelopment is one of the biggest projects the hospice has done, and once it has been completed, it will increase the number of people who we can help from 3,500 a year to 4,500.”

The large giraffes and one ‘calf’ will now be up for auction on Thursday.

The auction is at Hartlebury, and will be compered by Free Radio’s Tom Newitt and Hursty, and features Bargain Hunt and Flog It! auctioneer Philip Serrell.

The remaining giraffes will be donated to the schools and community groups that decorated them.