CHILDREN have filled 100 shoeboxes with Christmas gifts for those in need across Europe.

Members of Durham Cathedral’s Sunday Schools and Youth Group packed boxes with toys, games, sweets, clothes and personal hygiene items to be sent to children, families and elderly people in Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Albania by the Link to Hope charity.

Canon Rosalind Brown said: “The Cathedral’s Sunday Club has wrapped shoeboxes for several years now and the whole Cathedral community, congregation, staff and volunteers, supports them by contributing to the contents and the delivery costs.

“The shoeboxes are delivered to the door of local churches in Romania and each January we see the photographs of smiling people being given the boxes and hear some of the stories.

“This is a wonderful way for the children to put their Christian faith into action and to learn about caring for other people, while also having a lot of fun packing the gifts.”

The Cathedral will also be collecting gifts for local needy children, which will be distributed by the Salvation Army, following the traditional Lighting of the Christmas Tree service on Sunday, December 13, and food to support County Durham Foodbank.