Shoebox appeal nearly 2,000 short with days to go

Sheffield Shoebox Appeal is 1,900 boxes short of its target

Organisers of a Christmas shoebox appeal have pleaded for last-minute donations, saying they are 1,900 boxes short of their target - with only days before collection points close.

Sheffield Shoebox Appeal, which launched in 2013, gathers boxes filled with small gifts and delivers them to more than 40 local charities to be distributed to people who would not normally expect to receive a Christmas present.

Volunteers say donations have been "worse than ever" this year and they are not on track to meet their target of 2,800 boxes before drop-off points close on Saturday.

Organiser Chris Sexton said: "Everybody deserves a Christmas present. We'll be really disappointed if we can't give it to them."

Ms Sexton said the boxes were given out to adults in the region including homeless people, those fleeing domestic abuse and forced marriages, sex workers and elderly people who spend Christmas alone.

"Normally, by this stage, we can hardly move for boxes and can't keep up with them coming in," she said.

"This year, for the first time, we have an empty store of unsorted boxes."

Organiser Chris Sexton said the appeal usually had 700 more boxes by this time in previous years

She said the appeal usually received an influx of donations during the final days of the appeal but the total was already 700 boxes lower than expected by this time, leaving her "panicking" these would not come through.

She explained the window for donations had to close so early because it took a long time to collect the boxes, check and sort them, and hand them over to the charities.

"I'm estimating we could be anything up to 1,000 boxes short in the end," she said.

Ms Sexton said this room for sorting boxes was empty for the first time since the appeal's launch in 2013

Ms Sexton believed the reduction in donations could be linked to the cost of living crisis, but members of the public had also told her they were not seeing the appeal's social media posts on their feeds - its main method of communication.

"We have feedback of people saying it brought tears to their eyes that someone could do this for them and they wouldn't have gotten a Christmas present at all if they hadn't gotten this one," she said.

"I don't like to think of anybody not getting one - it'll be sad, very sad."

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