DOZENS of residents were given a bumper serving of Christmas cheer in York yesterday, at the city’s spectacular Xmas Presence celebration.

A 103-year-old and people from as far away as Malton were invited to the Poppleton Community Centre, in York, for the event, following the success of a similar initiative last year.

Ian Donaghy announced his plans through The Press earlier this year, and said the response was incredible.

An army of volunteers came together to source and wrap presents, to prepare Christmas dinner and to decorate the venue.

“This was a little idea 14 months ago and now we are getting national interest,”said Mr Donaghy, who has worked with Age UK to organise the big day.

“We are impacting on the homeless in York and going out to the elderly in domiciliary care. It’s amazing and this year has exceeded all expectations.”

The event has been described as ‘a wonderful opportunity to help alleviate loneliness within the elderly community at Christmas time...because no-one should have no-one.’

Mr Donaghy added: “I have a handful of diamonds working with me. I don’t have a big team of people, I have a really strong team with amazing skills who are willing to throw their hat in the ring and work really hard for nothing, except they think it is right.

“Everyone was wide-eyed and excited about Christmas for a long time and we’ve been looking forward to doing this since November.

“It’s the proudest thing I’ve done and it’s been created out of nothing.”

One of those entertaining guests was magician Josh Benson, who returned from London to perform.