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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Antony Thrower

Real-life Santa spends £15,000 helping under-privileged children after fundraising effort

A kind-hearted Brit, dubbed a real life Father Christmas, has spent almost £15,000 filling 37 trollies with toys and donated them all to a charity for underprivileged children.

Reese Fletcher, of Fletcher's Fencing, Decking and Garden Maintenance, and his team of helpers also gave good causes a further £4,000 of gift cards for older children.

They also donated the rest of their £22,000 fundraising effort to a suicide prevention charity.

Reese, 31, and his team turned piles of timber donated by local firms into 1,600 Christmas trees, which they sold for £10 a pop to raise the cash.

They then used the money to fund a trolley dash in toy shops to buy gifts, which he then distributed to good causes helping children in his hometown of Leeds.

The team filled 37 trollies with toys for under privileged children (Courtesy Reese Fletcher / SWNS)
The toys ready to be played with by children (Reese Fletcher / SWNS)

Big-hearted Reese said: "No kid should be without a gift at Christmas. The times are getting hard and the numbers of people struggling are getting bigger.

"It's nice to be nice and do something to help others.

"We had a big social media push and a lot of people have seen it and a lot of people that saw it last year followed us in the hope we'd do it again.

"The response this year compared to last year has just been amazing. It's pretty much doubled, the amount we've raised in total.

The team spent thousands of pounds on toys for children (Reese Fletcher / SWNS)

"The vibe in the toy shop was unreal, it was amazing. People just keep giving more and more and it gets bigger and better.

"Last year there were around 110 kids the charity we supplied to that weren't going to get a present, and this year it's 270; so it's more than doubled."

The team filled 37 trolleys in Smyth's Toys and spent £14,735 to make sure disadvantaged youngsters had a present to open on Christmas Day.

It is the third consecutive year dad of two Reese has bought presents for underprivileged children.

His festive fundraising efforts started last in 2020 when he saw a charity's video highlighting children who would likely not have any Christmas presents to open.

He raised £3,000 from the sale of 260 trees which he'd knocked up some using timber from his firm Fletcher's Fencing, Decking and Garden Maintenance.

Last year he raised more than £10,000 to help give kids a Christmas present.

The team raised the funds through the sale of wooden Christmas trees (Reese Fletcher / SWNS)

But he more than doubled that amazing figure this year by selling trees and through the help of a justgiving page he launched.

He added: "We had a great donation from Premier Timber and BSW and a farmer gave us the use of his barns to store them in. Everybody comes together and wants to help."

Reese donated the toys to a high school and community centre in Leeds who will distribute them to families in the area in need.

He also made a cash donation to Andy's Man Club, a men's suicide prevention charity which offers support groups across the UK and online.

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