KNITTERS in one small Oxfordshire village have been putting their needles to good use, to help put a smile on the faces of deprived children this Christmas.

Volunteers in Launton, near Bicester, have been busy making warm woollens for orphans, sick youngsters and deprived children in Eastern Europe.

Handcrafted gloves, scarves and finger puppets are being packed with thousands of other presents as part of Operation Christmas Child, run by charity Samaritan’s Purse.

Among those busy collecting and packing the shoeboxes of gifts is organiser Lesley Thompson, 50, a nurse at Oxford’s Churchill Hospital.

She said: “The great thing about it is everything you do goes to the children.”

The boxes are filled with toys, sweets, hygiene products, pencils and paper, as well as the knitted items.

Some 8,500 boxes were sent from North Oxfordshire last year, the boxes are stored in a warehouse in Long Crendon, near Bicester.

She said items in the Oxford Mail and our sister paper the Bicester Advertiser had led to a flood of knitted donations.

She said: “I been overwhelmed. People have been saying they love to knit, but they’ve got no one to knit for.”

For Mrs Thompson, the appeal has become a family affair. Husband David and children Catherine, 21, and William, 18, all get involved. Catherine even came back from Keele University, in North Staffordshire, to help pack boxes.

An event this year raised £1,100 for the appeal.

She said: “With that money we bought the stuff and people came to my house and filled 120 boxes.

“I got involved through Launton Environmental Group, which used to make a couple of boxes and send them.

“I joined the group about eight years ago and thought I would do it with the children.

“The following year I took the boxes to the warehouse myself and I got hooked.”

And the annual effort will continue. She said: “There are never enough packages sent out. I’ve heard horror stories about 100 children queueing up and another 100 outside who don’t get anything.”

Operation Christmas Child is a national initiative, which has been running for 20 years.

Packages have been sent to countries as far afield as Kosovo, Bosnia, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

If you want to donate filled shoeboxes, call Mrs Thompson on 01869 241755.