Smarties choc-a-thon are you in?

But now the retired Town Hall caretaker is asking his friends to indulge in a little bit of chocolate in a bid to help him reach his half million milestone for local charities.

To date, marvellous Davy has raised over £425,000 for charity.

He was forced to hand over his sit out hot seat last year due to ill health, but his merry band of volunteers, from all over the North Coast, were happy to fill in.

Davy has over 1500 followers on facebook - he’s asking them each to buy a tube of smarties, and after enjoying what’s inside - use the tube as a little money box - filling it with one pound coins before donating it his charities.

“It’s a very simple idea,” joked Davy.

“Everyone knows I have a sweet tooth, so I thought I would use my little downfall to encourage others to have a little treat and help my charities at the same time.”

And to keep up with the selfie craze - the Caring Caretaker, who loves keeping up to date on facebook, is asking those taking part to post a picture of themselves with their smarties tube to his facebook page using the hash tag ‘smartieselfie’.

“We reckon that about forty pound coins will fill the tube,” explained Davy, “and that would be a great boost to my overall fund raising if people get behind this,” explained Davy.

You can leave you filled tubes with Davy (07881916153) or at the Coleraine Times office.