Royal recognition is perfect present for toy appeal organiser

A mum-of-three who gives up her spare time to organise a Christmas toy appeal in Rochdale has been recognised by the King in the New Year's Honours list. Helen Walton has overseen the appeal every year since it began in 2013.

It means children who would not otherwise have anything to open on Christmas day have at least one present to unwrap. And thanks to Helen’s boundless energy and determination it's grown from delivering 75 toys to a local women’s hostel in its first year to distributing gifts to almost 2,000 children this year.

And now the 55-year-old has been awarded a British Empire Medal. She said: "This came as a complete surprise. Even when I read the letter telling me about the award it didn’t really sink in.

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"I run the toy appeal because I think it is important that we put something back into the community and at the heart of everything, I am a public servant. I have worked for the council all my working life and I recognise that there is a lot of need in the borough so I help out wherever and however I can."

Helen, from Syke, a policy worker at Rochdale council, has lived and worked in her home town all her life. As well as running the appeal through the council’s Number One Riverside Giving Back staff charity, she is also a member of Rochdale Parent Carer Voice 25+ group, which advocates on behalf of parents of disabled adult children, and GM Equal, a regional equality body.

Her experience of being the mother of a disabled child recently led to her being invited to being a Trustee of CASCAIDr, a