Help make Christmas special for needy children

Helen Leach (left) with staff at Swansway Honda in Rochdale, who donated gifts to last year’s toy appeal and will be supporting the appeal again this Christmas

Residents are being asked to help give local children living in poverty a cracker of a Christmas Day by donating to this year’s Christmas Toy Appeal.

The appeal, which helps make sure local children have presents to open on 25 December, asks residents to buy one extra present at Christmas – a new, unwrapped gift suitable for a child between 0-16-years-old and leave it at a local library by Wednesday 14 December.

Helen Leach, from the Giving Back charity, believes hundreds of children in the borough won’t be expecting a present from Santa this Christmas, she said: “Thankfully in the three years we have been running this appeal, residents, businesses and our staff have really got behind it but some children do still go without, so we always need more gifts. In 2016 it’s tough when you think that for some children it will be their only present, but let’s make it a good one.”

Toys can be dropped off at any of the borough’s 17 libraries. Gifts for 0-16-year-olds are all welcome, but they are especially needed for teenage boys, who got the lowest number last year.