A NEW initiative has been set up to help ease the loneliness and isolation brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The team manager for Children In Care North at Wiltshire Council, Samantha Heathcote has launched an Amazon wishlist inviting people to spread festive cheer.

So far 120 people have bought an Amazon gift card for the goodwill project which will then be donated to a young person leaving care. In total 309 are needed to cover every care leaver in Wiltshire.

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It is hoped that the campaign will reach 150 donations by the close of the week.

Samantha told the LDRS: "Being a care experienced young person at Christmas can be an isolating time magnified even further by the pandemic and as an authority we wanted to help spread some festive cheer from the community to our young people.

"We currently have 309 young people who are care experienced open to our service and would love to invite the wider community to gift a card to those who might receive limited gifts or cards at this time of year.

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"Im also care experienced and really passionate about doing what I can to spread cheer to those that find this time of year really hard."

To give to the campaign, please click here.