A postal mix-up could mean the end for a North-East charity.

Convoy Aid, of Teesside, which takes essential supplies to poverty-stricken Romania, is in danger of folding because the Post Office is returning donations to senders.

Rod Jones says the charity cannot survive without the donations and sponsorship, but sponsors are getting their cheques back, marked "addressee moved away".

Mr Jones said: "Unless I act quickly, Convoy Aid will be wiped out. People will think we are no more when, in fact, we are very much in operation.''

The mix-up happened after Mr Jones asked all mail to be redirected to his home after items disappeared from the charity's base, in Blue House Point Road, Portrack, Stockton. But he was on a mission to Romania when the two-year redirection period elapsed, so now the post is being returned to sender.

The Royal Mail has urged Mr Jones to contact its customer services.

A spokesman said: "The redirection service was put in place for two years, the maximum period you can have.

"Towards the end of the redirection period, we contact the customer to advise them it is due to run out, to see what they want to do; or we simply revert to delivering mail to the former address.

"In this instance, we did not hear from the customer as the end of the redirection period approached.

"At the end of a redirection period, we attempt to deliver mail to the former address, but were unable to do so here because the post box was already full of mail and was insecure.

"We therefore kept all the mail at our delivery office for six weeks and we still did not hear from the customer. We had no option but to return it to the sender."