Massive toy donation will help 'change lives'

Santa and his friends raised £7,000 for hundreds of toys through their sponsored walk

More than £7,000 worth of toys have been given to an annual toy drive that aims to help "change lives" this Christmas.

A man, known only as 'Santa', and his friends, took part in a sponsored walk from Twerton, Bath, to Weston-super-Mare on Sunday and surprised Avon Fire and Rescue Service with the donation for its toy drop.

"It's the biggest donation of toys we've ever had," firefighter Paul Johnson said. "It took 15 of us to unload it."

The fire service is urging people to donate toys and drop them off at fire stations in Southmead, Patchway, Bath, Avonmouth or Weston-super-Mare, which will be distributed to disadvantaged families.

Santa and "his amazing friends" raised about £7,100 in bucket collections during the "brutal" walk - which took place during Storm Darragh.

"[Two people] tried giving up at eight miles but I'm not about that, I said 'we're just going to keep going'," Santa told the BBC.

"I kept reminding them that there's going to be kids who are going to have a better Christmas [because of this]."

'Incredible'

The group spent the money they raised at a toy shop in Brislington, where volunteers then drove the toys to the fire station in Bath.

"This is one of about 10 cages we've got of toys. We've got brick-by-brick toys, dinosaurs, LED crystal lights," Santa said.

"It's gone a bit mad."

Mr Johnson described the achievement as "incredible".

"It started out as just him and a friend thinking of the idea to just go for a walk for a bit of sponsorship, and it snowballed from there," he added.

"The amount of lives that he's going to change, it's absolutely incredible."

Toys can be donated to the fire stations between 09:00 and 15:00 GMT.