“Realistically without the space, we’ll have kids on our list that could end up going without this Christmas which is a real concern.”
A Belfast charity is looking for a Christmas miracle for its annual toy appeal which is under threat.
Last year the team behind Mental Health Movement supported 147 families with toys and many teenagers with vouchers.
Now the North Belfast group is on the lookout for a large space to store toys for most of next month in the lead up to Christmas. MHM’s Annual Winter Appeal for new and pre-loved toys normally launches in mid-October and the team behind it say that without a space, they won’t be able to run the appeal this year.
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Last year we reported how the charity was initially unable to meet demand for its annual winter appeal and feared many families were facing a bleak Christmas.
The group warned that more local families than ever faced not being able to afford to buy food and gifts over the festive season.
But within hours of the article appearing on Belfast Live, the group was inundated with donations and offers of help and soon the situation turned from bleak to brilliant.
2025 marks the fourth year of the appeal, with over 140 referrals for toys last year, which was 30 more children than the previous year and way up from around 24 in 2022.
But this year the charity’s founder, Ardoyne man Caoimhin McNulty says things are looking very grim without an urgent reversal of fortunes.
He told Belfast Live: “We are still on the look out for a decent sized space to store toys between now and December 20. We supported 147 families with toys last year and countless teens with vouchers.
“Unfortunately without a space we won’t be able to run the appeal. We’re already behind this year as we would normally have started by now. We are willing to pay if it’s reasonable.
“So far anyone we’ve reached out to hasn’t had the space. It’s not a good situation as we’re looking at the same amount of kids needing support this year and sadly there will probably be people that we will need to turn away, just because of how long it will take us to get set up.
“We’ve no space even to really begin the appeal so we haven’t put any requests out yet for donations or anything because we just don’t know if we’re going to be able to run it.”
Caoimhin added: “We just need a big enough space ideally in north but even west Belfast that we’ll have access to as a store. It doesn’t need to be warm or anything like that, just somewhere we can store toys, have access to drop stuff in or to have people come and drop stuff to us.
“Realistically without the space, we’ll have kids on our list that could end up going without this Christmas which is a real concern.
“We’ve raised a good amount of money already so hopefully we’ll get quite a bit off our list, which currently stands at around 120. But if we can’t get a space, we would have to resort to buying vouchers and if we were to do that this year, I think we’re only going to be able to clear 40 people off the list.
“Obviously you’d have to make the vouchers worth the while so when you do the maths, you’d only really be able to support about 40 out of 120.”
Any individuals or groups who might be able to help are asked to contact caoimhin@mentalhealthni.org.
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