THERE'S been an "absolutely fantastic" response in West Cornwall to the annual Christmas appeal for parcels to send to soldiers serving out in Afghanistan.

Sue Robinson, the local co-ordinator for the Support Our Soldiers (SOS) charity, says she has had to close the appeal for parcels a couple of weeks early.

Christmas

"We've already got 800 boxes that we'll have to put into storage and wait to send out some time after Christmas," she says.

"The appeal has been so successful this year – Penwith has been absolutely fantastic; people are so aware of the importance of helping keep up the morale of the soldiers."

One of the groups which has rallied round is the Gwavas Residents Association at Newlyn which recently held a 'Pack and Wrap' morning on the estate.

And staff at Mears, which carries out social housing repairs and maintenance from its new base at Eastern Green, also did their bit, 'handing over a huge amount of stuff', according to Sue.

"They have also offered us some extra storage space for parcels which is great," she added.

The last posting date for parcels is this week but Sue says that sending parcels out to Afghanistan is a year-long business – if you would like to help, log on to www.supportoursoldiers.co.uk for more details or e-mail Sue on sue@supportoursoldiers.co.uk

Each parcel sent out to Afghanistan contains a range of items including sweets, nuts, biscuits, chocolate and toiletry items.