THE people of Gloucestershire are being thanked by Operation Christmas Child for their kindness in donating over 20,500 gift-filled shoeboxes for vulnerable children.

The shoeboxes have come from communities throughout the county, including Dursley and Wotton-Under-Edge.

Teams of Operation Christmas Child volunteers at the charity’s processing centres in Cheltenham, Cirencester, Evesham, Lydney and Mitcheldean checked and loaded the shoeboxes for their journey to Bosnia, Crimea, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia and Swaziland.

The shoeboxes, packed with toys, educational items, sweets and other small gifts, will bring Christmas joy to children who are living in difficult conditions in orphanages, children’s homes, street shelters and hospitals, or perhaps with their family but in conditions of poverty.

Area coordinator for Operation Christmas Child, Bob James, said: "People here have been brilliant. Times are quite tough for many, but they have still gone out of their way to pack a shoebox."

There is still time to create a shoebox using the new online service at www.operationchristmaschild.org.uk/shoeboxworld. Once the virtual shoebox has been created and paid for the volunteers at the warehouses fill actual shoeboxes to be shipped out.