MEMBERS and supporters of Upton's Baptist Church have filled more than 400 Christmas shoeboxes for needy children in eastern Europe.

Over recent months, members of various churches and knitting groups in Upton, and people from the town and surrounding villages, have been collecting a range of goodies to go in the boxes.

And on Friday, Baptist church members spent the day sorting out the presents and putting them into festively-wrapped shoeboxes, ready to be taken overseas.

The church hoped to be able to fill 300 boxes, but, thanks to the generosity of donors, they managed to hit a grand total of 425.

And on Sunday afternoon, a service of blessing the boxes was held, with tea and cakes provided for the congregation.

The boxes will now go to a warehouse in Evesham run by the charity Teams4U, which will transport them to Romania, Belarus and the Ukraine, where they will be distributed amongst deprived children.

Barrie Burch of the Baptist church said: "We are very grateful to all the people and groups which have contributed to our appeal, including knitting groups and churches, not only here in Upton but further afield in Welland and Malvern. Without their contributions, we would not be able to do this, so we thank them all.

"We had a very good response this year and the number of boxes was considerably up from last year's total of 330."

He said that the boxes make a real difference to the deprived children who receive them.

He said: "There are children living in orphanages, or in school or hospitals, or kids on the street. They literally jump for joy when they receive the boxes, because without them, they would have nothing for Christmas."

The gifts in the boxes include knitted items including hats, scarves and gloves, toys, sweets and other items.

The Evesham depot is set to distribute thousands of the boxes, which have been collected by groups across Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.