Your guide for your
Out& About Join Peppa on leisure time in &
around Oxfordshi
re
a great adventure
Family favourite full of friends, songs and fun
Have a laugh with Lee and pals to start the new year
GROUP Didcot, Wallingford, Thame & Henley-on-Thames Thursday, January 4 - Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Couple ‘lens’ a hand as optician opens new store Page 5
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oxfordshireguardian.co.uk
Looking back on a great year for Play2Give
Festive highs and lows for Oxford United
Pages 12&13
Sport
Miss Christmas delivers 10,000 gifts for needy By Samantha McGregor FOR the rest of us Christmas has been packed away for another year, but for one Oxfordshire teenager the festive season never stops. This year Didcot’s Courtney Hughes, who heads up Secret Santa Oxfordshire, collected about 10,000 gifts which she has distributed to sick and vulnerable people across the county. In the lead up to Christmas, Courtney and her network of supporters wrapped and delivered thousands of gifts to people including youngsters at Helen & Douglas House Hospice and patients at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital. On Christmas Day she delivered presents to patients in Didcot Community Hospital. She’s still not fi nished with her festive deliveries, with the fi nal presents to be handed out over the next fortnight. Courtney, a nursing assistant at Didcot Hospital, said: “The support this year was amazing.
“What has really been emotional are the amount of people who have contacted direct, many not from Oxfordshire who have heard about the charity and offering their support. “We also had donations sent from the USA, Wales and some still on their way from Belgium and Germany. “There have also been community groups involved as well, who have signed up for the 2018 appeal. I really am so grateful for each and every donation I have received.� Teaching agency Class Act Teaching, donated 1,000 items to Courtney’s charity. Branch manager Clare AdamsYewer said: “The work Courtney does supports the neediest in our society and hats off to her for her hard work and commitment over the past five years.� Courtney set up the charity in memory of her “best friend� and great grandmother Elsie Richardson, who died in 2013. The pair had always organised the family Christmas, but when Mrs Richardson was taken ill and
spent the festive period in hospital, Courtney took Christmas to her. It was then she noticed how isolated other people were, and decided to do something about it. One of this year’s special moments for Courtney was delivering gifts to residents of Hanover Court where her great grandmother lived. Courtney said: “We consider them as family and to be able to visit each year, host the party and hand out the gifts is really important to me. “I also gave a gift to every child at the Balsam Family Project Christmas Party that was pretty special. “Plus meeting a set of triplets and their lovely parents at the neonatal intensive care baby unit at the JR.� The charity still has a stock of items that will be handed out to homeless people throughout the year.
“The work Courtney does supports the neediest in our society and hats off to her for her hard work and commitment over the past ďŹ ve yearsâ€?
Class Act Teaching manager Clare Adams-Yewer
Christmas is not over yet for Secret Santa Courtney Hughes with just a small number of the presents she handles
The Oxfordshire Guardian has more printed copies than any other newspaper in the county
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