PARENTS in Okehampton buying their children new school shoes have been urged to hold on to the shoeboxes to help a charitable cause later this year.

Shoeboxes are used in a number of Christmas appeals, including the Trussell Trust Christmas Shoeboxes appeal, and Operation Christmas Child, run by Samaritan's Purse.

Each year the Trussell Trust takes thousands of shoeboxes filled with gifts for some of the poorest people in Bulgaria.

Operation Christmas Child takes boxes to children in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

If you have a shoebox and any small gifts you may like to donate, you can either keep hold of them until later in the year, or drop them into Donald's Menswear on Fore Street, Okehampton.