Poor children in eastern Europe will get presents in time for Christmas this year after an Oxfordshire businessman stepped in to provide a warehouse.

Each year volunteers from Operation Christmas Child in the county send out about 15,000 boxes of presents - donated and packed by Oxfordshire schoolchildren - to needy children abroad.

They are collected in a warehouse before a lorry takes them to the chosen country - this year Belarus in Eastern Europe.

But last week, regional organiser Kerry McLeish warned that gifts could be delayed this year because last year's warehouse in Drayton Road, Abingdon, was no longer available.

After the Oxford Mail highlighted the charity's plight, businessman Paul Mabbutt, 43, stepped in to offer a 5,000sq ft warehouse in Chalgrove, and volunteers started checking boxes yesterday.

Mr Mabbutt, a director of Jennings of Garsington, which owns the Monument Business Park in Chalgrove, said: "Our housekeeper Pauline Adams has children at the village primary school and they help out with Operation Christmas Child.

"She saw the article in the Mail and asked me if we could do anything to help.

"I knew a warehouse had just become available and rang Kerry to offer our help because I could see it was a really good cause.

"We need the warehouse back by the new year but the charity can use it rent-free until they have finished their work, which I believe is due to finish on December 14."

Mrs McLeish, 47, from Blewbury, near Didcot, is Operation Christmas Child area coordinator for Oxfordshire, and one of a number of volunteers who visited Kyrgyzstan, on the Chinese border, earlier this year to see how children aged two to 14 benefited from the gifts.

She said: "The story in the Oxford Mail worked wonders and came just at the right time."

She said the warehouse they had been offered was perfect for their requirements and about 150 volunteers would be working there. She added: "We need to get our lorry to Belarus by about December 15 at the latest and now we have a warehouse we are confident we will be able to get the boxes there on time.

"We were really stuck because schools were starting to ring us up and say their boxes were ready to be collected, but thanks to Mr Mabbutt's goodwill we are back on schedule."

Mrs McLeish said shoe boxes usually contained sweets, pens and paper, small books, toys and toiletries.

Last year, the charity sent 1.2 million boxes to children. For further information go to www.samaritans purse.uk.com