MORE than £4,000 worth of toys have been handpicked for the city’s most vulnerable children by Glasgow Times staff.

A1 Toys was taken over by our team yesterday morning as we took on the role of Santa’s elves, rushing to fill our sleigh, in the form of a minivan, with as many gifts as possible. 

Reporters Jamie Shuttleworth - dubbed Glasgow’s own Dale Winton by readers - and Ruth Suter were on hand to help gather a total £4,066 worth of toys.

Among the toys collected were Barbie dolls, Pokemon cards, board games, soft toys and colouring equipment.

Glasgow Times:

The cash is just some of the overall fund from the Bank on Us GoFundMe page which raised more than £10,000 thanks to generous donations from people across the city and tycoon John McGlynn’s promise to match up to £5,000.

A staggering £9,000 worth of toys were bought last week to complete our appeal.

David Burns, director of A1 Toys, said: “It’s been a horrible year for everybody and anything we can do to help out I would be delighted to do.

“I’ve got kids of my own and I know a lot of people are struggling this Christmas so anything we can do to help people in our community is something we definitely want to do.

“Not to get too political but there are a lot of people out of work at Christmas who shouldn’t be so anything we can do to help we will.”

All of the toys are in the process of being delivered to toy banks, schools and charities across Glasgow who will then distribute the gifts to families in need. 

Two thirds of yesterday’s collection went to Birth, Baby & Beyond in the West End and the Greater Easterhouse Supporting Hands charity.

Glasgow Times:

Final deliveries will take place tomorrow in time for gifts to prepared and sent out ahead of December 25. 

The donation page has since closed and any left over funds will be sent directly to our charity partners.