CHRISTMAS will be brighter for hundreds of deprived youngsters in Eastern Europe thanks to pupils at a Thornton school.

Around 400 sturdy boxes filled with toys and toiletries will be ferried to youngsters in Romania next week, after children at Stanah Primary School spent a week filling them with gifts -- everything from crayons and colouring books to talc, soap and combs.

The specially made 'shoe boxes' were provided by Thornton Cleveleys Rotary Club, and when they were filled, enterprising youngsters from the Lambs Road school found and filled even more boxes of their own.

After a dedication service at St John's Church, Little Thornton, on Tuesday morning, the boxes will be loaded onto an International Aid wagon and transported to eastern Europe in time for the January 6 festivities there. Rotarian Alan Hebden said: "We have never known a school get into it as much as Stanah.

"A lot of the children in eastern Europe have nothing.

"We went once and a 22-year-old burst into tears because she had never washed her face with soap."

Stanah's head teacher, Tony Ford, added: "We are a school that's heavily involved in the community and this is a community activity that we are happy to support."