Our 25th Anniversary Secret Santa Appeal has just launched this weekend and already we have had new companies come on board to help us.

Local firms, Covance, Bradvent, Westbourne Dental Surgery, Whiteoaks Respite Care are just some of the new businesses who have arrange to collect donations of gifts from staff and customers to ensure that needy children are not left without this Christmas.

"We are always amazed by people's generosity and these companies have made a simple decision to buy some gifts as a team effort running mini-appeals in their businesses." Michelle Pemberton, JCI Bradford's Community Director.

"At Covance, we are all really looking forward to spending Christmas with our families this year, and we wanted to help make the day special for families who have been less fortunate. That's why we've set up our Christmas wish tree. In December, all staff are encouraged to bring a gift for a boy or girl of a certain age and place it under the wish tree.  For what we would normally spend on sending Christmas cards to all of our colleagues, we can send a gift to a child who really needs it instead! We've been an established business in Leeds for almost 30 years, and this is a great opportunity for us to give something back to our community." Ruth Smethurst, Covance

"We decided to take part in the Secret Santa Scheme because we felt it was time to give back to the community and help a worthy cause. As we are a family based company this appeal seemed the perfect way to give back to people who are not as fortunate as we are. It was easy to get involved in the scheme, the staff were very supportive and we received many donations from suppliers and customers who had heard we were partaking in this cause. We aim to donate again at Christmas 2015.  We received donations from: Envirovent Ltd, Vent Direct Ltd and Natwest." Carly-Marie Hefferon, Bradvent Ltd.

There is a thank you page at www.jcibradford.org.uk/secret-santa/thank-you/ which we feature as many as we can those companies that support us.