MEMBERS of a Black Country charity think staff at a Brierley Hill jewellers are "a real gem" after they donated £1,000 to help them cope with a funding crisis.

Beaverbrooks at Merry Hill picked the Dudley and District branch of the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society to receive its annual charity donation because the daughter of the jewellery shop's assistant manager has the condition.

The branch has, until now, received £8,000 a year from the borough council towards running its service at Dingle Community Centre in Kingswinford.

But, following cuts at Dudley Council, the charity faced having to spend a lot of time preparing and submitting an official tender to continue receiving funding, with no certainty that its bid would be approved.

So the MS group, which runs a day centre for sufferers, decided not to apply for the funding and is now gearing up to raise all of the centre's running costs of more than £20,000 when the council grant runs out in April.

Beverley Holloway, assistant manager of Beaverbrooks, said: "Every branch of our company is allowed to donate £100 per member of staff each year to a charity close to their hearts.

"We have 10 staff here and, because my daughter, Chloe Mercer, who is aged 28 and from Rowley Regis, has MS we decided to give it to the Dudley and district branch.

"They do a fantastic job offering support to local MS patients."

Mary Harris, chairman of the Dudley and district branch, said: "We think the staff at Beaverbrooks are a real gem.

"It will help us a lot because we are having to gear up to raise more money when we lose the council funding."