A generous 86-year-old’s fond memories of receiving a charity Christmas parcel when he was a boy have set him on a 30-year mission.

Hensingham’s George Henry Young has been making Christmas shoeboxes for children in the third world since the 1980s.

His effort this year has seen him has carry 12 boxes, three at a time and by foot, to Whitehaven from his home over the past week.

The former serviceman who also ran a pharmacy in the North East for seven years has been putting the boxes for Operation Christmas Child together since the 1980s.

The charity is close to the pensioner’s heart because his mother died when he was just a baby and he has fond memories of receiving charity Christmas parcel when he was young.

When he was being brought up by his sister, he still remembers receiving a Christmas parcel from the American Red Cross.

The Sunderland-born octogenarian said: “I remember it was during the Second World War. This parcel came for me and it was filled with presents. I was very impressed and it was then that I realised putting together a box for somebody could give so much joy.

“So I want to give somebody a memory like the one I had when I opened that parcel. It is something nice for them to think about with everything that is going on in the world.

“I am very happy to do it because I am a firm believer that if you do good things for others, then good things will come to you.

“It has cost me just £5 a week to put these boxes together. It’s not a lot of money these days, but it is enough to make somebody, somewhere smile and that’s important.”

The well-travelled pensioner admits he has “never settled down” and has spent the majority of his life on the road.

Finding work wherever he could, he started journeying towards the arctic circle after completing his national service. His travels have taken him across Europe, Iran and South Africa. He even ended up living in an old mining building in the Pennines where he was visited by police, who mistook him an escaped convict.

The veteran traveller moved to West Cumbria in the 1980s because of his love of the outdoors and mining communities. He is now teaching himself German and Italian and planning his next adventure.

The Operation Christmas Child project is run by Samaritan’s Purse, an international disaster relief organisation which works in more than 100 countries to provide aid to victims of war, disease, disaster, poverty, famine and persecution.

The Whitehaven News office in Queen Street, Whitehaven, is one of the drop-off points for the shoeboxes.

For more information, visit www.samaritans-purse.org.uk