HEART OF ENGLAND CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY STAFF COLLECT FOR SOLDIERS AT CHRISTMAS

Kind-hearted staff at a Bedworth travel shop are calling on customers to help brighten up Christmas for soldiers in Afghanistan.

Caroline Bentley-Showell, Operations Manager of the Heart of England Co-operative Society’s Travel Division, has teamed up with her colleagues at Co-operative Travel in High Street – Team Leader Lydia McPhilimey and Travel Consultants Stacey Marshall, Tracey Armitage and Stacey Peach – to collect goods for the charity Support Our Soldiers.

Already the team have collected a wide range of goods including sweet and savoury snacks, seasonal treats and toiletries.

They are appealing for customers to bring in unwanted items to help top up the number of parcels being sent, and to donate shoeboxes and wrapping papers, so the gifts can be wrapped.

Caroline said: “For the last few years we have collected toys for local hospitals but everyone is feeling the pinch this year and we thought parents would probably prefer to hold on to toys for their children.

“But something as small as packs of sweets, or biscuits, or shower gels and razors are affordable to almost anyone so we decided instead to collect for soldiers. This way it just helps the soldiers know we’re thinking about them.”