A Christmas hamper scheme has expanded this year with the help of several companies.

In a tradition which has been going on for the last few years, staff from Douglas-based packaging company Nampak have put together Christmas hampers for charity.

The entire office consists of 14 people, and so they started out small, with a hamper made up of donations made by the team, which was donated to Women’s Aid IoM.

Steve Marsland, procurement and logistics manager, said: ’From that point we decided to make it an annual event, but to also try to make a few hampers for a few different charities.

’So two years ago the staff at Nampak started buying items from early September and when we put the hampers together in December we managed to make up six hampers which we gave to four different Isle of Man charities.

’Building on this success last year the staff again started buying items in September and by the end of November we had collected a good selection, it was then that we started contacting Isle of Man based companies to see if they too would like to contribute to our charity hampers, we received a good response and received donations from quite a few Isle of Man based companies, from which we managed to make and distribute 12 hampers to local charities.

’This year we have again gone out to local businesses to contribute and again we have received many donations to add to our staff contributions, with the amount of contents that we have we expect to make 20 or more hampers this year which again will all be delivered to local Isle of Man charities.’

The hampers will be donated to Women’s Aid, Graih House, Rebecca House Children’s Hospice, Live at Home for the Elderly, Isle Listen, A little Piece of Hope, Hospice Isle of Man, Victim Support, Alzheimer’s Isle of Man, Manx Miracles, Wish Upon A Dream, Crossroads and St Christopher’s Fellowship.

Mr Marsland added: ’It has been a difficult few years for everyone and for so many businesses, so to achieve what we have so far and to receive the support of local businesses is fantastic and really appreciated, I am confident that the local charities will be extremely grateful for the hampers and that they will provide some help to people in difficult times.’

The team at Nampak wished to thank all of the companies who made very generous donations of everything from groceries and toys to cash.

A total of 25 hampers have been made up and wrapped for delivery and a list of all of those who donated is within the hampers, which will be distributed on Wednesday and Thursday (December 15 and 16).