This was the fourth year we have teamed up with Rotary International to distribute gifts to deprived areas across Eastern Europe.

Hundreds of people poured into our offices to collect the flat pack Rotary boxes, filling them with a variety of gifts such as toys for children, clothes and games for teenagers and household items for elderly people.

In total 2,806 boxes were sent from our offices to Eastern Europe this year.
Reporter Helen Bell saw first hand the impact these gifts had on the people of Romania after spending four days there last year on the trail of the boxes.

She said: "I was touched by their disbelief at receiving such a gift. The appeal truly makes a difference to these children; the delight on their faces was obvious."
Rotary delivered the boxes to Romania, Belarus and the Ukraine in January this year.

Many of the boxes were hand decorated by our readers to make them more personal.

Rotary said items we take for granted in our daily lives can make a huge difference to the poor families there.
As in the case of the children, these toys may be the first gifts they have received for a very long time.

A big thank you to all our readers who took part in the appeal.