A LORRY filled with festive shoeboxes will shortly be leaving Worcestershire for the Ukraine to help give impoverished children a better Christmas.

The charity Teams4U, which has a processing warehouse in Evesham, recently appealed for donations of shoeboxes filled with gifts for youngsters in Romania, Belarus and the Ukraine.

At an open day coffee morning to raise awareness and celebrate their success so far, Teams4u said that they already had more than 4,000 shoeboxes in the warehouse being processed and prepared for export.

The first lorry will soon be leaving, destination Ukraine. The next two lorries are going to Romania.

Paul and Alison Jeanes, who organise the shoebox appeal with other volunteers, want to say a big thank you to everyone who has helped and donated.

Teams4u is now looking for gifts of soap and toothpaste – so if anyone can donate then do please get in touch.

Last year the warehouse collected, checked and exported more than 19,000 gift-filled shoeboxes.

Nationally the charity collected more than 33,000 shoeboxes to give as gifts to children.

Two articulated lorries filled with shoeboxes were taken out from Evesham to Eastern Europe by the volunteers.

This year they hope for even more of these loving gifts to go out.

If people would like to take part in the campaign to donate a gift-filled shoebox or just help out then they are asked to get in touch.

The requested donation this year remains at £2.50.

Leaflets are available at teams4uevesham@gmail.com

The warehouse, in Davies Road Shopping Centre, Davies Road, Evesham, is open Monday to Friday 10am-4pm and 6.30-9.30pm, and on Saturdays from 10am to 2pm.

You can contact the warehouse team via teams4uevesham@gmail.com, 01386 860934 and 07450 088334.