AN annual appeal to help young people in need this Christmas has been launched.

The Love in a Box appeal has been run by the charity Children in Distress for just over 20 years and involves sending Christmas shoebox parcels packed with gifts to areas of Eastern Europe experiencing poverty or hardship.

The boxes are delivered to hospices, homes for orphaned or abandoned children and places where children are experiencing extreme poverty.

Fundraising manger Caroline Wilkie, said: “The Love in a Box Shoebox Appeal 2017 will build on the successful of 22 years of appeals delivering Christmas love in gift boxes filled with gifts, kindness and joy to the poorest infants, children and senior citizens in Europe.”

To help promote the appeal, a Children in Distress Love in a Box Christmas Shoebox Event will be held at The Sun Inn in Pickering, from 3pm to 8pm, on Monday.

Caroline said: “We will be offering refreshments, Christmas gifts and decorations, and selling donated items for Christmas shoeboxes with all proceeds to Children in Distress Shoebox campaign.”

For more information, go to childrenindistress.org or contact the local shop at 31 Market Place, Kirkbymoorside, phone 01751 432406.