JUST over a week remains for gifts to be donated to this year’s Hampshire Chronicle and Winchester News Extra Christmas Toy Appeal, run in conjunction with Winchester Basics Bank, Home-Start Winchester, and Friends of the Family.

The appeal aims to help the children of people going through difficult times.

The Basics Bank helps families in B&B accomodation, women fleeing domestic violence, the newly-unemployed waiting for benefits to start, and people who have found work, but are between benefits ending and wages starting.

Home-Start Winchester & Districts offers free support to families with at least one child under five going through difficult times which may include loneliness and isolation; coping with twins, triplets or several pre-school children; ill-health; disability and special needs; relationship difficulties; lone-parenting; first-time parenthood and new babies; or behavioural problems.

Friends of the Family is a small, independent, Winchester-based charity which has offered confidential support to local families in difficulty for 20 years.

Among the services it provides is a mums’ and toddlers’ group for pre-school-aged children when homelife is challenging, a dads’ support group giving confidential help to men with children aged up to five, and at-home support for families with children aged five to 13.

The closing date for donations is Friday, December 12, which will enable each charity to distribute the toys in time for Christmas.

Toys can be left in the Waterstone’s store on the upper shopping level at The Brooks shopping centre in Winchester.

Please only donate brand new toys suitable for toddlers to children aged up to 13, which should be unwrapped.