Easter egg appeal biggest and best ever with 11,268 eggs donated and distributed by Mother Christmas

In the biggest and best Easter egg appeal Jeanette Walsh, who goes under the moniker of Mother Christmas, thanked her supporters for their excellent donation tally of an incredible 11,268 eggs donated and distributed by the gran of two.

She had been worried that the Northamptonshire public had forgotten her, but she needn’t have panicked – the eggs kept rolling in!

She said: “Well this was a big ask this year. With four weeks to go I had only collected 400 Easter eggs, so I was panicking, however slowly but surely the Easter egg collections got bigger and bigger.

“Together we smashed the Easter egg challenge with 11,268 being collected making it the best year ever. What a lot of chocolate. I really don’t want to see another Easter egg for another year!

“As usual you didn’t disappoint, I managed to deliver quite a lot of Easter eggs to lots of families this year myself which was an absolute pleasure, when I turned up at the door even the parents couldn’t believe it. It was worth all the hard work.”

As well as families receiving Easter eggs, Jeanette delivered to all the county children’s social work teams from Daventry, Corby, Kettering, Wellingborough, and Northampton.

Jeanette said: “Because you were so generous I supplied two schools, one in Wellingborough and one in Northampton, all of our five children’s homes, the Leaving Care team, and the Homeless shelter, and a nursery – so you can see I’ve been very busy.”

She also shared a letter that she was sent by a grateful recipient who wrote: “Thank you so much for the Easter eggs. It’s been a much bigger help this year with losing Dave and trying to sort my money out as well as trying to support the two younger kids through it all, and financially sort out things that they need.

"It’s not been easy, so it is one less thing I have to worry about and they can know have an Easter egg hunt which is what there dad would do with them every year as he was like a big kid himself.

"So although it’s our first Easter without him which will be hard on both of them, it will also bring back happy memories for them whilst doing it, and then they will love being able to eat their chocolate after dinner. I’m hoping the kids will be able to sit and talk about their memories of their dad and be able to laugh, cry or even both but it will help with there grieving process. To some people they would be just some Easter eggs or chocolate but, for us this year, it is so much bigger than that so I can not thank you enough for all your help.”

Jeanette added: “Thank you on behalf of all of the children and families and young people right across Northamptonshire who will enjoy a little chocolate this Easter thanks to you.”

She is now taking a ‘well-earned rest’ before getting ready for her annual Mother Christmas gift appeal.