A Christmas grotto which features festive lights, a postbox to send letters to Santa and fun reading and drawing areas has opened in Dirleton to help support Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity (ECHC).

Granny’s Grotto has been organised by Margaret Kent, whose granddaughter Flora Gentleman has stage-four neuroblastoma and has been taking part in a vaccine trial in the USA.

The grotto began at Margaret’s home on Monday and runs until Christmas Eve.

Margaret ran the grotto from her home last year, raising more than £1,000 towards Flora’s treatment in the US, which she has now started.

This year, the grotto has returned and funds will be going to Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity, which supports children, young people and their families in hospital.

ECHC has contributed more than £3.1 million to Edinburgh’s new Royal Hospital for Children and Young People to help create bright, welcoming, colourful spaces in order to make hospital less scary for children.

READ MORE: Christmas grotto helps gran raise more than £1,000 for young Flora's cancer battle

Stephanie Kent, Flora’s mum, said that the charity had been instrumental in making treatment for Flora easier.

She said: “The charity has been a huge part of Flora’s journey.

“When she was regularly visiting the hospital, they helped provide entertainment like puppet shows and really made Flora’s time there less stressful.

“We’re hoping this wee grotto can help raise some funds for them and give something back to them for all their help.”

Margaret, 58, is back in the grotto as Granny Claus every day from 3pm until 8pm outside her home at Oatfield Stables.

The grotto features an opportunity to post letters to Santa, read some books in the library and get a photo with a Santa doll.

The event is free but visitors are asked to leave a donation if they can in collection boxes for ECHC.

READ MORE: Flora Gentleman back home after cancer treatment in New York

Margaret said ahead of the opening: “We’ve been setting up for a while now and we hope to see lots of people come along.

“There’s a letterbox on site where kids can write a wee letter to Santa and post them in and we guarantee that Santa will give them a response if they provide their address.

“We ran that initiative last year and kids were really enthusiastic about getting a response from Santa, which was nice.

“We wanted to make this a free event because, at the end of the day, we want all kids to have a great Christmas and we appreciate that not everyone can afford to pay to visit some of the big Santa’s grotto events.

“If people can leave a donation, no matter how small, we’d be very grateful, but I hope everyone can come and enjoy the grotto.

“All our family are really looking forward to this Christmas. Last year, Flora was quite poorly at this time of year, so it will be nice to spend time with her now that she is feeling a little better.

“Hopefully as many people can come along to the grotto as possible.”

Donations to Granny’s Grotto can also be made at justgiving.com/fundraising/granniesgrotto