Presents given to a Treats for the Troops campaign will get to frontline soldiers in time for Christmas, it has been promised.

The Wallingford Rotary Club campaign hit the buffers after the Ministry of Defence said it could not handle the number of goodwill parcels people were sending for troops overseas.

But the Bradford-based charity Support our Soldiers stepped forward to ensure gifts would reach the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rotary Club organisers had said they would try to find alternative places, like charities for the homeless, to take the gifts.

But one member, Marilyn Dyer-Lynch from Cholsey, would not give up.

She said: “People gave the gifts for the troops and I wanted them to get to the troops.

“Much as they would have been well received by other charities, they were meant specifically for our boys and girls overseas at Christmas to show them people here are behind them, thinking about them and prepared to send gifts to them.

“The Ministry of Defence had refused to take them for very good reasons.

“They said hundreds of general parcels held up the priorities of personal gifts to troops from their own families, as well as ammunition, equipment and food, and that the extra flights involved put our aircraft and helicopter crews in considerable danger.

“But I knew other charities made sure things got out to the troops without overloading Ministry of Defence aircraft and I felt sure someone would take them.

“So I trawled the Internet after taking advice from service people I knew, and was put on to the Support Our Soldiers organisation.

“They came at the weekend and took all our parcels, assuring me they would get to the troops in time for Christmas. I’ve just had a phone call to say the gift boxes are in the air and on their way to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I’m sure people who gave the gifts will be delighted.”

One woman who spent £55 on gifts to be sent to the troops, but who did not want to be named, said: “I make donations to the homeless in other ways, but my daughter and myself paid out a lot of money because we wanted our soldiers to get the gifts.

“I’m so glad it has now been sorted out.”

Support Our Soldiers said it had sent out 11,956 parcels in total.

A spokesman added: “The parcels mean much more than a box of seasonal goodies — they represent the support and good wishes of the British public and show our brave soldiers we are thinking about them.”

Mrs Dyer-Lynch said: “The lady who collected our parcels said how much they were appreciated.”