An Aberystwyth photographer has raised almost £25,000.

Since 2014, John Ibbotson has made it a tradition to donate the proceeds from his calendars, which are packed full of his fantastic photographs, to charity. This year is no exception, as he explained.

“I have just finished sorting out donations of £1,141.75 each to two charities, The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales and Haul, Arts In Health/Celfyddyd mewn Iechyd.

“The money is all the profit from sales of 2026 calendars. As traditional for me now, one was of wildlife and the other of Ceredigion sunsets.

“I also added to the donation with profits from the sale of prints and cards sold in the run up to Christmas.”

Haul Arts facilitator, Bryn Jones, was delighted to receive a cheque from John on behalf of the organisation. He said: “HAUL is so grateful to John for choosing us once again for this amazing donation that will go towards our Arts in Health programme in Ceredigion.”

John said Sarah Kessel, Chief Executive Officer of the Wildlife Trust, sent him “a lovely card which included the following”: “Thank you so much for choosing your local wildlife trust for your very impressive fundraising work.

“You are one of our most dedicated fundraisers.”

John added: “I started doing sunset calendars to raise money in 2014 and, to date, I've donated close to £25,000 to a range of different charities.

“During the Covid pandemic I started doing much more nature photography and so started to produce another calendar using my photos of wildlife.

“Since then I have had two different calendars available each year and have shared the donations between The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales and different mental health charities. These choices were made due to the importance that nature played in our mental health during those times.”