Gifts from boy's Christmas scheme sent to charity

A teenage boy who was hoping to collect more than 1,000 presents for The Salvation Army this year has started sending gifts to the charity.

For the third Christmas in a row, James, 15, is collecting presents from schools in Stafford after he had 560 donated the first time he did it and 950 the second.

People were attempting to add up the number of gifts and "hopefully trying to beat" the 2023 tally, he said.

The Salvation Army stated his efforts were "absolutely brilliant".

James has been inspiring schoolchildren to donate gifts which have been kept at schools before they get taken to one of the charity's sites in Hednesford.

The presents will then get distributed to people who might not otherwise get a Christmas present.

The Year 11 student said there have been "some fantastic students" that had given gifts.

People have donated presents to three schools in Stafford: Walton High School, Berkswich CE Primary School and Leasowes Primary School.

"It's been so lovely to see such, as a local community, almost like a family. We're so close-knit together," James added.

"It's important that everyone that wants to celebrate Christmas should be able to. Unfortunately that's not the case for everybody. Even if it's one life that we change at Christmas time, that's better than nothing."

He thanked everyone who had supported him and said it had so far been "so rewarding".

Gary Chatburn, from The Salvation Army, praised him for helping them and said if it was not for people like James, many children "would go without Christmas presents and or very little at Christmas time".

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