Christmas is a time for giving and the ’can-doers’ of Leonard Cheshire Isle of Man are doing just that with their special hampers for homeless people.

Packs filled with toothbrushes, gloves, socks, hats and chocolates have been wrapped to spread Christmas cheer to men and women who use Graih, a Douglas shelter.

Those behind these hampers are members of Can Do, an initiative that helps young people with additional needs.

This is run by Leonard Cheshire, a charity that supports people with physical and mental disabilities.

The scheme, called Care and Share, gets them together to wrap essentials for homeless shelters.

Two sessions took place at University College Isle of Man in Douglas, with 12 members taking part and writing a personal note for each one.

Hannah Nightingale, 21, found wrapping the presents a heart-warming experience.

She said: ’It’s quite disappointing that they [homeless people] don’t live the way that we do. They’re being left out.

’We’ve been wrapping up these items and hopefully whoever gets them will be happy and delighted about all of this.

’To them it might be unexpected.

’In the packs we’ve given them some smellies so they can be clean and as tidy as they want to be and some other things and a nice treat.’

Graih - which means ’love’ in Manx - provides a free drop-in for food, drinks, clothing, bedding, a shower and a safe social space as well as an emergency overnight shelter.

The idea of the night shelter is to not only provide a place to sleep, but to collect data to determine the level of homelessness that exists in the island.

Manager Erica Irwin previously told the Examiner & Independent: ’Speaking with Housing Matters [another charity], the problem is big. We just don’t know how big.’

The night shelter is a 12-month project, which runs until the end of January.

For the first 10 months of the year, Graih provided 407 bed spaces in 10 months for 48 people.