PUPILS have packed more than 200 shoeboxes to ensure disadvantaged children around the world receive a Christmas present this year.

Newker Primary School, in Chester-le-Street, has filled 212 boxes for the Operation Christmas Child campaign, run by Samaritans Purse International.

The national initiative, organised within the school by teacher Joanna Pringle, encourages people to fill boxes with presents for boys or girls.

The gifts are then sent to children in more than 100 countries who would otherwise be unlikely to receive a Christmas present.

The school has also raised £420 for children's cancer units at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary and Newcastle General Hospital, following the death of a pupil in July this year from leukaemia.

The money was raised through a snack day and harvest festival collection.