A WELLINGTON mum is behind a social media campaign to provide toys for children from families facing extreme financial difficulty.

Alice Burns, of Mantle Street, set up Project Wrapped Up 2014 to help struggling families with presents for little ones at Christmas.

She said: “As a mother of two young boys I found it too expensive to afford Christmas presents and could only manage to buy second-hand for my children, which made me feel like I was letting them down in some way.

“Then I realised there are many families out there who can’t even afford to buy presents which are second-hand, or what we call pre-loved, as they’re facing really extreme financial challenges.”

Alice and friends Clare Merchant, Karla Tadgell, Louise Harding and Laura Hardy are collecting pre-loved toys in good working order and items of clothing for children aged up to five.

The donations will be sold at a series of tabletop sales to raise money to buy new toys to be given to the charity Action for Children, which will give them to some of the needy families it works with.

“Doing it this way means we can recycle pre-loved items to help families while at the same time raising money which can be used to provide new toys for children who may never before have been given something new at Christmas,” said Alice.

Karla, of Olands Road, Wellington, said: “No parent should have to tell their child Santa will not be coming this year.

“Every child deserves a magical Christmas.

“We put the Project Wrapped Up 2014 campaign on Facebook and other social media because this is familiar to our generation, and there has been an absolutely staggering response with lots and lots of donations of toys and clothing which we can now recycle and turn into cash.”

Project Wrapped Up 2014 can arrange collection of donations in an area stretching from Tiverton to Bridgwater.

Anybody who wants to get in touch with Project Wrapped Up 2014 can email projectwrappedup2014@hotmail.co.uk