Piled high with more than 15,000 shoeboxes packed full of goodies, this lorry left Oxfordshire at the weekend on a mission to bring Christmas cheer to needy children in Belarus.

The gift-wrapped boxes, which have been collected from schools, churches, community groups and individuals across the county, are going to children of all ages in Belarus in Eastern Europe as part of the nationwide Samaritans project Operation Christmas Child.

Kerry McLeish, co-ordinator of the Oxfordshire project, said this year she and her 150-strong team of volunteers had been inundated with generous donations - all of which will make a huge difference to the children's lives.

She said: "These boxes will be the only gifts the children receive this Christmas and this year.

"The boxes go to children in orphanages in Belarus, which is still affected by the Chernobyl disaster.

"They contain soft toys, paper and pens, toiletries and hand-knitted hats, gloves and scarves."

The lorry, which was waved off from Drayton Road, Abingdon, on Saturday morning by scores of volunteers, will travel direct to Belarus, which was part of the former USSR.

Mrs McLeish said: "You know this will make a difference to those children.

"With temperatures often plummeting as low as -12C in Belarus at this time of year - and with no heating or little in the way of warm clothing - the hand-knitted scarves, gloves and hats that our volunteers have made go a long way to making life better.

"The next time the boxes are unwrapped it will be the children unwrapping them, which is a nice thought.

"It makes all the volunteers' hard work worthwhile."

This year, double the number of volunteers came forward to get involved in Operation Christmas Child in Oxfordshire compared to 2005 and 1,000 more boxes were collected.

Last year, the UK sent a total of 1.18m shoeboxes to needy children in a number of Eastern European countries as well as Afghanistan and Mozambique as part of Operation Christmas Child.

Mrs McLeish added: "It is a short-term campaign. We began our appeal for donations in October and began collecting shoe boxes in November and were delighted with the response.

"Many of our volunteers have been driving around the county to collect boxes or knitting all year. We have had people donating in huge quantities.

"Lots of individuals and organisations really get behind us and get involved."

People were asked to fill a shoebox with gifts aimed at a specific age group and gender and then wrap them in Christmas paper.