A CHARITY book created by a Lyme Regis couple is being released in time for Christmas to try and prove laughter is the best medicine.

Tracey and Simon West have compiled a list of jokes – one for each day of the year – and have called it “365 Silly Jokes for Kids” as part of a fundraising drive for the charity Martha Care.

The charity was set up in 2006 after the death of seven-year-old Martha, who was the child of Mr and Mrs West’s friend Maggie Mickshik. Martha had been suffering from a brain tumour since her first birthday.

The charity has provided a support worker to help families who are in the same position as the Mickshiks, and the book was created as the charity try to raise £40,000 a year to keep the service going.

Containing hundreds of jokes, the book includes well known ribticklers plus some original material.

Mrs West, who compiled the list of jokes, said: “It was such fun to work on the joke book although I didn’t giggle much at them until I’d finished.

“It took around 200 hours to pull it all together and lay everything out and to draw the excellent cover and Simon to draw the cartoons in it.

“Our hope is that goes a long way to ensuring the Martha Care Support Worker in the Bristol Royal Children’s Hospital is there for a very long time and if fundraising goes exceptionally well, that they might be able to employ more to work in other south western children’s wards too, which would be amazing.”

Some of the jokes included in the list are: “I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger and bigger... then it hit me”, “What do cats like to eat on a hot day... mice cream”, and “What is a spider’s favourite day dream ... to be on the worldwide web.”

Mr West, founder of Magic Oxygen Publishing in Lyme Regis, created the images that accompany the jokes.

He said: “Martha loved jokes, this is a fitting celebration of her life, the things she adored and a great cause.”

Comedian and actor Ben Langley, pictured, is the patron of Martha Care, and has also penned the foreword for the book. He said: “Martha was incredible and she made me dizzy bombarding me with daft jokes.

“Thanks to anyone that supports the cause by buying the book and showing laughter is indeed a great medicine.”

For more information on purchasing this book or to stock it, contact Simon West at magicoxygen.co.uk. The book is currently available from Serendip in the town.