People across the county have filled more than 24,500 shoeboxes with presents for children facing difficult lives in several countries.

The shoeboxes full of presents have been donated by members of the public, schools, companies, churches and organisations from communities across the county, including Castleford, Dewsbury, Leeds, Otley, Pontefract, Tadcaster, Wakefield and Wetherby.

The shoeboxes were checked in the Operation Christmas Child processing centres at Holmfirth, Leeds and Sherburn In Elmet and are being sent to children in Belarus, Crimea, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Swaziland and Ukraine.

"On behalf of Operation Christmas Child and all our volunteers, I just want to send a huge 'Thank you' to every single person who donated a shoebox this year" says Keith Gibbons.

"This has been a hard year for many people in West Yorkshire, and we are just knocked out by the fact so many of them have put together a shoebox."

Ian Macleod, head of operations and logistics for Operation Christmas Child added: "The last lorry loads of shoeboxes from the UK are just heading off now and, while we are still tallying up the final numbers, we will be distributing over 1.1 million donated shoeboxes, a quite outstanding figure.

"I would like to add my thanks to everyone in West Yorkshire who has taken part."

Operation Christmas Child sends shoeboxes with gifts to children in the following countries: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Kosovo, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Montenegro, Mozambique, Romania, Serbia, Swaziland, Ukraine and Zimbabwe.

It is one of the main annual projects run by Samaritan's Purse, the evangelical Christian humanitarian aid charity.