Hunt is on for Lee-on-the-Solent’s hidden treasure as community library launches fundraising puzzle challenge - here’s how to be in with a chance of winning a silver necklace worth more than £400

Volunteers at the Lee-on-the-Solent library are challenging puzzle-lovers to have a go at solving the case - and be in with a chance of winning a solid silver heart necklace worth more than £400.

Clue sheets are £5, with all funds going to support Lee Hub, which is entirely run by 42 volunteers.

Hellen Bach and her husband Norman Macintosh worked with Terry Wogan for 20 years raising funds for Children in Need, helping to collect £5m for the charity over six years.

Now a volunteer and trustee at Lee Hub, Hellen decided to put her fundraising experience to good use again by hosting a treasure hunt.

The Lee-on-the-Solent competition is a test run for a much larger nationwide treasure hunt set to be held in support of the British Heart Foundation.

Hellen, 66, said: ‘It’s about supporting this one to make it as big as we possibly can to make the nationwide one even bigger.

‘It’s also about cracking the clues and having a bit of fun. It’s bringing people together after these years of not being able to be together.

‘For the small treasure hunt, we want the community to get involved.

‘At Lee Hub, it’s not just a library - we have an over 60s lunch club, we have pilates, we have French speaking lessons, it’s very much a community-based hub.’

The hunt is already on for Lee-on-the-Solent’s treasure, which can be found by solving eight clues leading to places in the town - and celebrities including Harry Redknapp and Aled Jones have got involved on Lee Hub’s social media platforms.

Answers can be handed in by email or in person to the volunteers at Lee Hub.

It will run until April 21, and the winning name will be drawn out of a hat at Lee Hub on April 23.

Hellen, who moved to the area with her husband two years ago, estimates that about 50 people from all across the country are already taking part in the treasure hunt.

The clues can be solved from the clue sheet or by visiting Lee-on-the-Solent.

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Hellen said: ‘There are hundreds of people googling Lee-on-the-Solent, googling cafes and buildings. People are learning about our little village.

‘The more people that want to crack the clues, the more people will show us that there’s interest in it.’

The prize for the test treasure hunt is an exclusively designed solid silver heart created by KatieAnn design, with runner up prizes of silver and leather thong bracelets.

Hellen said: ‘This idea came to me because I was given an ingot of silver by my mother when she passed away.

‘Rather than using it as a doorstop I decided to have it melted down and used as some treasure.

KatieAnn is designing the necklace for the local treasure hunt - as well as the prizes for the nationwide competition - for free as she wants to support her local library.

Visit leehub.co.uk/treasure-hunt.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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