REAL BRITAIN

Ros Wynne-Jones standing up for you and your family

- BY ROS WYNNE-JONES AND CLAIRE DONNELLY

OVER 2,000 miles from Lapland, hidden deep inside a suburban garage in Wigan, a white-bearded man with a megawatt smile is hand-making toys in his workshop.

The surface of his desk is covered by saws, lathes, tubes of paint, jars of glue and half-cut shapes. Giant boxes are filled with wooden children's toys - trucks, cars, elephants on wheels, ducks, dogs, and animals of every kind.

"They're saying I'm the Wigan Santa," Bill Houghton, says with a twinkly smile.

"And maybe I am. Christmas is all about the children, isn't it? No child should be going without, at Christmas - or any other time."

The cheerful 80-year-old has been crafting beautiful toys for children in need for the last three years, after one little boy's story captured his heart.

"A local charity, Daffodil Dreams, told me about a little lad, he was only three, who didn't have any toys at all," Bill says, trembling with emotion. "Nothing.

"That cut me up, to think of that little lad. When I was growing up, I was lucky, I had a happy childhood, I didn't go without. I was never cold or hungry - I hate that there are children today whose mums and dads are struggling to pay for everything, who will be struggling at Christmas. I thought, I'm not having that'.

"I just want to help, to do what I can. It seems like things are getting harder if anything, and I just want to do my bit."