Hairdresser's plea for Christmas present donations for Northampton children in care

Hair stylist Jayde Vaux from Boothville wanted to set a shining example for her children this Christmas and has signed up to a new project with Earths Lonely Angels and Gift of Christmas.

The scheme, Festive Cheer Northants, aims to give families on a low income a Christmas Day dinner hamper and each child a present to open, so parents can enjoy the day worry free.

Every year Jayde's family usually donate their toys and clothes to charity for Christmas but this year she wanted to go the extra mile and set the Facebook page up herself.

The two charities work on referrals from social services and women's refuges - and all the donations given to Jayde will be kept in storage at her house to further benefit children and their mums.

Items that are wanted include tubs of sweets, ambient or frozen food, toiletries, second-hand clothes and toys, which will be quarantined before Christmas Day.

Jayde, who can be contacted through the Facebook page, said: "People are struggling every year and particularly this year because of Covid. Every year my family donates food and toys as a household but I thought this year lets do it on a bigger scale.

"I've already had three ladies message the page to ask for hampers because they are struggling. I want to make people's lives better. I think as a society we are quite selfish and there's a lot of people who are worse off and if more people chipped in there would be a lot of people less hungry, cold and sad.

"I would say to anyone who needs help to get in touch. We are not here to judge, there's plenty of people working and not working who are struggling. Life has got harder in the last couple of months and unless you ask for help we won't know you need it."

Jayde, who is asking for all donations to be given to her before December 5, has a spare chest freezer for food storage while the charities have lock-ups for gift donations, which will be quarantined before being handed out.

The project has also helped a young mum this week who could not clothe her son, and gifted her with a huge delivery of clothes and toys while another lady couldn’t get her son a birthday card.