By Anne Pickles

Last updated at 12:08, Thursday, 15 November 2012

Venetia and Kevin Faunch know only too well how easily and unexpectedly a family Christmas can be cruelly thrown into chaos.

Kevin and Venetia Faunch

Last year Kevin, 42, a farm worker, was laid low by a heart attack. While he was in hospital, the family home in Waverton, near Wigton, was an empty place filled not with Christmas cheer but with worry. That was when hardship set in.

No money was coming in, and all his two little girls Stacey, 11, and Ayeisha, eight, wanted for Christmas was their dad to come home again.

Presents were the last things Venetia could afford even to think about.

“It was a bleak time,” said Venetia. “And when something like that happens it makes you realise how quickly, from out of nowhere, something awful can happen to turn your life upside down.

“Bad luck and misfortune can hit anybody at any time. And that’s what makes the News & Star Christmas Toy Appeal so worthwhile. Children shouldn’t ever have to suffer when a family crisis strikes.”

A year on and Kevin is almost fully recovered. The future is looking brighter and the family is looking forward to a Christmas mercifully free of dramas.

“Last year we were fortunate and grateful that, having heard about our situation, Cash For Kids Mission Christmas delivered presents for the girls at new year.

“They had a late little Christmas and though they still worried about their dad, it gave them a bit of a lift.

“The News & Star Christmas Toy Appeal is a wonderful way for those who can afford an extra gift to offer a little cheer to unhappy children who can’t see a way through.”

The News & Star Christmas Toy Appeal is being run in conjunction with CFM’s Cash For Kids Mission Christmas.

All we ask is that readers buy an extra child’s gift or two and drop them off at the News & Star offices in Dalston Road and Bank Street, Carlisle and at the Workington Times & Star and Whitehaven News town centre offices. You can also drop off your gifts of unwrapped new toys, books, games, selection boxes, and sweets at collection points where you see our appeal posters.

We are being supported generously by newsagents across Cumbria – who have promised to collect on our behalf – and by supermarkets in Carlisle. Collection points can be found at Asda, London Road; Sainsbury’s, Caldewgate and Carlisle’s Morrisons store.

A full list of drop-off points can be found on our Christmas Toy Appeal web page

First published at 11:58, Thursday, 15 November 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk