THE Trussell Trust has launched its most urgent appeal for Christmas shoe boxes yet. Last year, a record-breaking 7,239 gift-filled boxes were donated to Bulgaria's most desperately poor men, women and children.

This year, the Trussell Trust is appealing to the people of Salisbury to help it meet the ever-growing demand for these festive parcels in the EU's most poverty-stricken country.

Bulgaria operations manager Rich Parsons said: “For the abandoned and marginalised in abject poverty, a Christmas shoe box shows that people do care, they are loved.

“More than 8,500 children live in orphanages in Bulgaria, and to give a child who has nothing a box filled with Christmas gifts brings that orphan indescribable happiness.

“A Christmas shoe box is truly treasured.

“Last year, the people of Salisbury were really generous - we were stunned that so many donated despite the economic difficulties in the UK.

“We were able to distribute these parcels of Christmas joy to even more orphanages, refugees and families in poverty.

“But the demand is bigger than ever.

“This year, we are hoping to visit even more of the poorest communities in Europe, and to do so we really need people in the Salisbury area to help more than ever before.

“That's why we're asking everyone who gives a shoebox to tell a friend about our appeal - imagine how many Christmases we will be able to brighten!”

Christmas boxes are put together by people in the UK, and each shoebox is wrapped in festive paper then filled with small gifts such as soap, stationery, gloves, hats, toys and sweets.

The Trussell Trust distributes the boxes to orphanages, poor Roma communities, women's refuges, refugee camps, prisoner's children, poor rural schools and isolated elderly or disabled people.

Christmas shoeboxes can be taken to The Trussell Trust offices at 6b Ashfield Trading Estate, Ashfield Road, Salisbury, or to the Trust's shops in the High St and next to St Michael's Church, Bemerton Heath.

For more information, please visit trusselltrust.org/christmas-boxes.

The deadline for Christmas shoe boxes is November 26, 2014.