Local business super charges Greater Manchester charity toy appeal

Darren Jones from Buy a Battery and Jessica Rigby, charity manager of Cash for Kids

Heywood based Buyabattery.co.uk has given Greater Manchester’s Mission Christmas team an extra boost with a donation of £2,000 worth of batteries to power up toys and gadgets donated to the toy appeal.

The online battery retailer has joined forces with Hits Radio’s annual Mission Christmas campaign, run by Cash for Kids, to help ensure that thousands of disadvantaged children in Greater Manchester have a Christmas to remember.

The appeal asks people to donate a gift or cash donation for children and young people living in poverty, ensuring that they have a present to open on Christmas day. Buyabattery.co.uk’s donation will be used to ensure any battery operated toys and gadgets that have been given to the appeal are ready to use on Christmas Day.

The largest Christmas toy appeal in the UK, in 2020 Mission Christmas collected over £12.7 million in gifts and cash donations, which was used to give gifts to 254,352 children and young people across the country including 30,697 recipients in Greater Manchester. This year, with more and more people living in poverty, the charity is expecting record levels of requests for help.

Darren Jones, Managing Director of Buyabattery.co.uk, said: “We knew that we had to be part of Mission Christmas this year, and to ensure that any toys donated had spare batteries to go with them. It is an absolutely fantastic campaign that makes such a huge difference to the lives of so many young people and children on Christmas day.

“It was really inspiring to visit the North West’s Mission Christmas warehouse to meet Jessica and see how the gifts and presents are sorted and despatched to spread some Christmas magic across the region. It feels good to know that we are playing a small part in helping to support this appeal. I would urge any other local business to get involved in any way that they can.”

Hits Radio Cash for Kids charity manager, Jessica Rigby, said: “We are always overwhelmed by the sheer volume of toys that are donated to the appeal and the wide variety of presents that people choose. Of course, many of the post popular children’s toys and gadgets require batteries to make them work which is why this donation by Buyabattery.co.uk is such a fantastic added bonus to the appeal. It’s with great thanks that Darren and Teresa Jones came along to our donations hub to deliver the batteries personally.”