This Christmas is likely to be a very different kind of Christmas for everybody. And sadly, for many in the North East, instead of it being a special time to look forward to, it will be just another cause for anxiety and stress.  Parents shouldn’t have to choose between heating their homes this Christmas and feeding their little ones, yet they are. They shouldn’t have to depend on food banks, yet many are.  Families are facing real financial hardship as they struggle with losing their income, through furlough, through redundancy or through long-term unemployment.

The North East has seen the country’s biggest rise in child poverty since 2014. Almost a quarter (23.7 per cent) of children in the North-East now live in poverty before housing costs have been taken into account, up from 17.3 per cent just four years ago – that’s the biggest percentage rise in the country.

What’s even more shocking is that those figures are from before the Covid outbreak began taking its grim toll on people’s health and livelihoods. This disease is hitting those already trapped in deprivation the hardest. But Children North East is working hard to combat the worst effects of child poverty. Will you help the families we work with to have a happier Christmas? Could you offer our children some hope?

If you can afford to make a donation, no matter how big or small, this will make a real difference to the babies, children and young people we help, not just this Christmas but into the new year.