Sir Paul McCartney's former wife Heather Mills visited Bristol to celebrate 15 years of a vegan charity based in the city.

She helped launch a new campaign for Viva called Fruity Fundays, which aims to help people reduce the amount of meat they eat and encourage them to become vegetarian or vegan.

Former model Miss Mills, who was married to McCartney for four years and had a daughter with him, was awarded £24.3 million in a court settlement following their divorce in 2008.

Miss Mills, who visited Portland Square in St Paul's on Saturday evening, said: "Viva does incredible work to make a real difference and it is a great honour for me to be one of its patrons, especially with this being the 15th year since Juliet Gellatley founded the charity.

"Fruity Fundays is a great idea. People talk about going vegetarian once a week, or at least three times a week, and anyone can do that."

Viva, or Vegetarians' International Voice for Animals, is an animal rights group, which promotes vegetarianism and veganism.

The group carries out undercover investigations to expose the abuse of factory farmed animals and produces information on how to go vegetarian and vegan including recipes and shopping guides.

Viva founder and director Juliet Gellatley said: "Fruity Fundays aims to help people reduce meat any day of the week – and then encouraging them go the whole way to becoming vegetarian or vegan.

"Viva will be rolling out this exciting initiative initially in Bristol, working with businesses, education authorities, local government, primary care trusts and communities to encourage people to commit to Fruity Fundays with only veggie food served one day a week or more."