A TEAM of charity volunteers have been busy collecting and sorting hundreds of shoe boxes in Barrow for their annual Christmas appeal.

The team from Boxes of Hope Cumbria have been packing up 4,135 gift-wrapped presents at their warehouse at Trinity Enterprise Centre in Ironworks Road, Barrow, since last Monday.

READ MORE: Barrow community champions in running to be Christmas Switch-on Star

Members of the public have donated shoe boxes filled with toys, games and educational supplies and they will be handed out to children living in poverty in Romania in time for Christmas.

Busy week

The Barrow warehouse volunteers have checked every shoe box to make sure only suitable things have been donated, removing any liquids and fragile items, and batched the boxes into cartons, ready for travel to eastern Europe.

Rhona Teale, shoe box co-ordinator and manager of the Barrow warehouse for Boxes of Hope, said: "I just can't believe the generosity of people.

"Some of the poorest people in Barrow have done shoe boxes - they would rather give something to somebody else when they haven't got everything themselves.

"It's truly amazing."

People had between November 1 and 12 to drop-off their completed shoe boxes at one of many designated sites such as the Evening Mail office in Abbey Road, Barrow, Fountain Street Dental Practice in Ulverston and Millom Network Centre.

Generous community

This year's campaign has been an even bigger challenge than usual in Barrow, as the warehouse the charity has used in previous years to run its south-west and south Cumbria operation was unavailable, prompting an area-wide search for somewhere new.

Thankfully, the people at Trinity Enterprise Centre stepped into offer a unit that Boxes of Hope could call home these last few days for their important work.

Mrs Teale said: "I'm pleased. It could have all gone pear-shaped but people have been amazing.

"I can't thank people enough, especially the people from Furness Lions.

"We have had four of them in and they have been in every day so we have had great support from the Lions.

"They have been wonderful here at Trinity Enterprise."