Special Christmas parcels for troops in Afghanistan

Proprietors of the local post office, Sarah and Jonathan Armstrong, along with their dedicated staff and the support of their customers have, to date sent two hundred and ninety four 'morale boosting' parcels to the troops.

The parcels contain items such as sweets, biscuits, crisps, magazines, disposable razor blades, and deodorants, but Sarah said that, thanks to the donation from the Lions and the generosity of local people, the Christmas parcels will be extra special.

Sarah said: "We can confirm that a donation of 1,000 has been agreed by the Lions Club of Hastings and will be used to purchase a whole lot of extra goodies for the troops. We also received a ten pound donation from Tesco and have a few customers (mainly pensioners) who regularly donate 10 a week.

"Cooden resident June Harland has been a great help collecting goods and organising shoe boxes for the parcles. We are planning to send seventy two parcels at Christmas, each one will contain two Christmas presents, cake, party hats etc."

The first batch of parcels which the post office sent out to Afghanistan have already reached the troops and are being gratefully received.

Cpl Matthew Hinton, a technician in the Royal Signals currently attached to the Grenadier Guards, based at Shawqat, Nad E-Ali, which is at the heart of the conflict at the moment, sent the following letter:

"I recently very gratefully received one of your morale packages, kindly donated by your customers. This was a great surprise and everything we received has gone down very well with the lads!!

"However, we did receive some cards, and subsequently I've gone on to consistently loose at poker so maybe I should keep them to myself!

The morale this gives us cannot be underestimated, receiving any mail really is the highlight out here and the support is of great comfort to us.

"Please pass on my thanks, on behalf of all of us out here to your customers. Anybody who would like to write to us out here is most welcome and will be most appreciated."

Donations for the parcels can be made either at Windmill Drive Post Office, at the Observer offices in Sackville Road, or at 62, Hawkhurst Way Cooden.

For further information call (01424) 214 253.