THERE is only one thing Courtney Hughes wants for Christmas - a shipping container.

So generous has been the response to her appeal for presents to give to sick people over the festive period that her house is now full from top to bottom with wrapped gifts.

The nursing assistant from Didcot has had a staggering 5,000 items donated to her charity scheme this year, which gives out gifts to care homes, hospitals and hospices over the festive period.

As a result, Miss Hughes is struggling to fit them all into her three-bedroom family home and they are now filling the house of her grandfather Keith Hitchman, who also lives in Didcot.

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  • Courtney Hughes and sister Megan, 11. Picture: Damian Halliwell

She is therefore appealing for a firm to come forward with a container so gifts not delivered this year can be stored there for next Christmas.

Miss Hughes, 18, who lives with mum Claire and dad Lee, said: "It has been floor to ceiling with presents at my house and at my granddad's.

"My sister Megan, who is 11, has had to move into my room because her bedroom is full of boxes.

"There are presents everywhere - in the kitchen, living room, hallway and on the landing and my granddad's house is covered too.

"Last year we had about 4,000 presents but this year we have had over 5,000 - when I started the scheme I never thought it would get this big.

"We could have lots of presents left over that we can't deliver this year so we need somewhere to store them and a shipping container would be ideal.

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  • Courtney's home in Didcot is full to the brim with presents

"We have had some land offered to us where the container could be stored and we are hoping a firm could donate one.

"A container could cost a lot of money - maybe a couple of thousand - and we would love it if a firm was able to come forward to help out."

The teenager said she and her family are now boxing up individual presents so they do not take up as much space.

The former Didcot Girls' School pupil added: "If we can't get a container straight away it would be nice if the presents could be stored somewhere else for the time being but it would have to be somewhere secure.

"It has made it difficult to wrap up our own presents and move around the house because there are so many parcels.

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"It's wonderful that we have got so many donations but we never expected to get this many."

Miss Hughes said people were sending in gifts from a number of different locations including Manchester, Wales, Scotland, and Birmingham in the UK and from different locations in the United States.

Items donated include toys, books, toiletries, blankets, gloves, scarves, nappies, computer games and household gifts.

Didcot Community Hospital, The Meadows care home in Didcot, Sobell House hospice in Oxford, Helen and Douglas House in Oxford, and homeless charity Crisis, are among locations benefiting from Courtney's scheme, Charity Secret Santa Oxfordshire.

How it all started

COURTNEY Hughes’ Secret Santa campaign was inspired when she was just 13 and had to see her great-grandmother Elise Richardson stuck in the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford over Christmas.

Earlier this month volunteers working for seven hours solid could not wrap all the presents donated to the famous Secret Santa this year. Courtney and her sister Megan booked out Didcot’s Marlborough Club for a mammoth wrapping party from midday to 7pm, but even with help from their mum and dad and 40 other helpers, they still could not get the job finished.

Donations this year, which have come from across Didcot and beyond, have included a lot of ladies’ toiletries and make-up and a £1,000 gift from one woman.

Miss Hughes has made her first Santa sleigh ride around Oxford, dishing out gifts at Helen and Douglas House children’s hospice, Sobell House hospice, Crisis homeless charity and the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Anyone who can help should email courtneyzoe@live.co.uk