A charity which collects toys and hands them to deprived children at Christmas has progressed from a back-garden shed to a new spacious warehouse.

Since 1999, Superkids North Wales has played a vital role throughout the year, and especially at Christmas time, for families with children who are living on the bread line.

Margaret Williams, founder of Superkids, turned her retirement into a selfless project of purchasing new toys using grants and funding, or collecting them by donation from individuals, then systematically sorting through them to create a ‘Christmas sack’ for each child in the family.

She said: “We started in a 17 x 20m shed, all piled up and packed in full. You had to climb over everything. It was great – but horrendous.

“We hadn’t got to working out a system and we couldn’t sort it all out properly.”

But on September 1 this year, Margaret and her team upped sticks and moved to an old library unit in Mold, boasting rows of shelves and lots of space for the toys to be stacked, sorted and dispatched, making the job of these voluntary elves much easier and more efficient.

Margaret, who has lived in Flintshire for 30 years, witnessed the eye-opening situations of children across Flintshire, Denbighshire, Wrexham and Conwy as a parent support worker of vulnerable families for the last 13 years of her 33 year career in social care.

Her inspiration for launching Superkids is a heart-warming one. She said: “For children, the most important day of the whole year is Christmas Day. Imagine all that excitement and build-up, then waking up on Christmas morning to no presents. It’s heartbreaking for them.

“When I retired in 1999, it wasn’t a statutory requirement for social services to supply gifts at Christmas since jobs changed and boundaries change. So I thought, right, the need is definitely there, I’ve got like-minded friends – and from then, it has grown and grown.”

Margaret and her team of volunteers are actively pursuing a vision of alleviating some of the “so many sad cases” of some desperate families across North Wales who cannot afford festive gifts for their children due to social circumstances.

She said: “Life throws things at certain families.

“People suffer major illnesses, deaths or redundancy in the months leading up to Christmas.

“They might have to wait six weeks before income relief steps in and they obviously need this money to eat.

“It’s sad and a disgrace that food banks – and ourselves really – exist, but this is need over want.

“Some children and families are victims of domestic violence, low income, or absent fathers and the kids think to themselves on Christmas morning ‘what have I done to not deserve a present?’”

This is why Margaret, who was awarded an MBE for her charitable work, puts all her effort into working with social agencies who put forward a child they think deserves this service by filling out a form of their age, gender, hobbies and personality traits which the team then use to choose suitable gifts.

Margaret’s paramount message is that the charity isn’t there to boost Christmas time for every family.They are a crisis intervention charity.

She added that many funding organisations do not see the need to assist Superkids with grants, as they ‘don’t fit into people’s criteria’ and ‘don’t appreciate the fact some kids are going without.’”

After receiving £5,000 of Flintshire Council funding last year, Margaret said she would be ‘happy with anything’ and ‘can’t knock’ their grant of £3,000 this year.

She is also delighted to receive  support from local businesses such as the White Rose Centre in Rhyl, the Rhyl Parternship, who confirmed their backing earlier this month and the Flint Masonic charity who will present Superkids with a cheque in November.

With large business also on board, such as Kellogs, Kingspan and hopefully Tesco, Margaret is hoping to top last year’s number of bags, 1,301, to ensure more deprived children receive the gift of kindness this Christmas.

To donate new toys, time or to get involved, contact Margaret on 07814373389.