Fie Rason, from Orpington, has chosen to give up her Christmas to help the charity CHICKS, which provides disadvantaged children from across the UK with free week-long respite breaks, on their Christmas break.

Fie, 42, has volunteered on three CHICKS breaks since 2009, and this will be her first Christmas helping out at the charity. For many of the children, a CHICKS break is the first ‘holiday’ they’ve ever known and they are able to experience new activities such as visiting the seaside and riding a horse.

During this festive break, along with the usual activities, the children will have a traditional Christmas dinner, visit the pantomime, wake up to stockings from Santa and generally experience the fun and excitement of Christmas which so many of us take for granted.

The children CHICKS will support this Christmas are aged between 8 and 13 and come from a range of disadvantaged backgrounds. Many of them are living in poverty, whilst others have parents in prison or are acting as young carers for sick or disabled relatives. The circumstances they are living in mean that, without CHICKS, Christmas would be a very stressful experience. In anticipation of helping at the Christmas break, Fie says: “I believe it will allow the children the chance to be simply that - children. They’ll be able to enjoy all the fun elements of Christmas - games, crafts, Christmas movies, the excitement of preparing for Father Christmas to come, the enjoyment of sharing a meal with a group of people on Christmas day and going to sleep tired and happy every night. Hopefully it will provide an opportunity for them to forget the things that worry them at home and simply enjoy Christmas.”

CHICKS receives no government funding, and relies entirely on donations. This year, the Christmas break has only been made possible by funding from pasty makers Ginsters.

Respite break manager at CHICKS, Richard Whitehouse, said: “I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has made this Christmas break possible, especially Ginsters for funding the break. This is such a magical time of year, but for some children in the UK, this sadly isn’t the case. We’re so grateful to Fie for giving up her own Christmas to help us give 16 disadvantaged children a festive season they will remember for all the right reasons.”

For more information about CHICKS, or to find out you can get involved, please visit www.chicks.org.uk Based on information supplied by Alice Pope (from CHICKS Charity).