Cupid with a conscience

Most people know someone who moans every year that Valentine's Day is just a commercial gimmick. This year there are some novel alternatives to the usual flowers and perfume, even those grumpy unromantics might cheer up if you mention ‘it's for charity’.

Be original and impress your Valentine by giving them one of the following:

FAMOUS
Celebrity signed Valentine cards are been auctioned on Ebay for the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID). Beat the bidders to the Alan Titchmarsh card for £90, or for more of a bargain, what about our own Eamonn Holmes - going for a mere £8. Other celebrity signed and kissed cards include Ant and Dec, Cliff Richard, Dermot O’Leary, Jo Brand, Barbara Windsor and Natalie Imbruglia.

Karen Baxter, the charity’s media relations officer, said people are buying the cards for themselves as well as for their partners, “The Ant and Dec card has been the most popular so far, but there are also cards going for £3 to £30 ”. Auction ends 21 February 2004. Visit www.eBay.co.uk

ROMANTIC
Woodland Trust will dedicate a tree to your Valentine in Belvoir Wood, Belfast for just £10, or save a bluebell wood on their behalf for a donation of £50. Visit www.woodland-trust.org.uk or www.goodgifts.org .

CHOCOAHOLIC
Anyone who loves chocolate would be delighted with Divine Fairtrade Chocolate. Packaged appropriately with pretty red hearts, Divine is available as gold foil wrapped eggs or as bars of milk, dark or white chocolate from Co-op, Tearcraft shops or Sainsburys.

BARD
Construct your own Valentine e-card by visiting the British Heart Foundation (BHF) website at www.bhf.org.uk where you can write a love poem and choose Miss Piggy, Joanna Lumley, Arnie or Roger Moore to read it aloud. The service is free, but there is an opportunity to make a donation to the Real Valentine Appeal to help the charity 'mend real broken hearts’. Funds raised will be used to provide specialist cardiac nurses, rehabilitation programmes and publications for heart patients. Also available at the site is a Valentine Card Kit for a suggested donation of £5.

Happy Valentine's Day!