People are giving their first new £5 note to charity

The new £5 note has arrived and people have decided to donate their first one to charity to mark the occasion.

The UK’s first plastic banknote, featuring Sir Winston Churchill, was introduced last week and is more durable and harder to counterfeit than paper ones.

John Thompson came up with the idea of donating it to charity and tweeted a poll to encourage others to get involved:

It will take a few weeks for the new notes to be introduced to cash machines across the country, though the idea has been gaining popularity:

Lots of people have been using the hashtags #fivergiver and #firstfiver to promote the campaign:

It’s not linked to any particular organisation, so people have been donating to a charity of their choice.