The numbers are now in for Satire Aid’s Big Fat Secret Santa appeal. Together the readers of The Rochdale Herald, NewsThump, Angry People in Local Newspapers, Tuckered and Southend News Network we have bought almost 26,000 presents worth £175,000 for children in poverty and care.

It’s unbelievable!

We sent presents to Rochdale, Burnley, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Burton-on-Trent, Newcastle, Southend, Colchester, Reading and Fife.

Children supported by charities including Barnardos, The Salvation Army, Rochdale Giving Back, The Loveinspire Foundation, The Reading Toys and Teens Christmas Appeal, Colchester Foodbank and Mission Christmas.

You sent thousands of boxes of Lego, hundreds of guitars, thousands of children’s books, crayons, craft kits, radio controlled helicopters, drones, Bluetooth radios, baby toys, baby sleeping bags, blankets and hundreds of other items.

That’s a football stadium full of children who otherwise wouldn’t have received a present on Christmas morning donated by people all around the world.

On behalf of everybody at The Rochdale Herald, NewsThump, Angry People in Local NewsPapers, Tuckered and Southend News Network all we can say is thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

And we can’t wait to do it all again next year.

Quentin D Fortesqueue is a founding editor of The Rochdale Herald. Part time amateur narcissist and full time satirist Quentin is never happier than when playing his lute and drinking a full bodied Bordeaux. He rarely plays the lute and never gets to drink Bordeaux.