Hundreds of Christmas presents collected by Leeds men's mental health charity owner for struggling families and children

The owner of MINT, Men In Need Together, charity in Leeds has collected the presents in a bid to "give back" to the community.

Joshua Sturgeon put a post out on the charity's Facebook page asking for donations of toys or any recycled clothes to put into practice his idea of wanting to help those in need this Christmas.

The Morley resident has used St Peters Church Hall in Morley where he holds support groups to store the Christmas present mass collection.

27-year-old Joshua said: "We get a lot of help from the locals and supporters in the area and the response to my plea for presents has been overwhelming.

"I then put out a post to tell people who needed presents that they could come and collect them and we had over 100 families come on Thursday with an average of three to four children per family needing presents.

"There were lots of happy faces and we also gift wrapped shoe boxes full of toys for Santa to give to families for their children on their way out."

Joshua still has quite a lot of presents left to give out after also giving some out to a church in Middleton so that they can do a present-handing-out day too.

He added: "It genuinely means the world to me that we can help these families.

"Ever since I got involved with mental health I have seen how much someone can change other people's lives.

"The kid's faces were priceless and to say many tears have been shed is an understatement.

"It wasn't until we started doing this that I realised how many under privileged kids there are in Leeds alone."