A HUGE pile of boxes containing festive goodies is set to be delivered from a Witney church to disadvantaged children abroad next Tuesday.

About 2,100 shoeboxes have been collected as donations from indviduals and organisations by High Street Methodist Church as part of Operation Christmas Child, and more than a dozen volunteers have spent the past two weeks sorting through them.

Now the boxes, which include gifts such as toys, toiletries, clothing and hairbrushes, will be sent to Ukraine, which has been plagued by conflict since February.

Volunteer Becki Reed, 23, of Madley Park, whose mum Rev Melanie Reed is church vicar, said: “It’s been a fantastic response from the community and the church – it’s pretty overwhelming.”

A dedication service was held for the shoeboxes at the church on Monday, in which one Romanian woman who received a box when she was 14 spoke about what it meant to her.

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