Ambulance workers Elaine Leake, Alan Brown and Ashley Earl

IT really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

This week, the New Journal’s team of elves tackled the task of delivering your gifts and good wishes to people facing a tough winter.

And in among the goodies so kindly provided by you, our readers, were a huge stack of presents provided by true heroes – members of Camden’s ambulance service.

The NHS workers, based at the Cressy Road ambulance station in South End Green, chipped in to buy from their own wages scores of gorgeous presents for us to distribute to youngsters whose families are struggling.

While we have all been under pressure due to the cost of surviving crisis, with soaring bills, low wages and grim news each day, New Journal readers have never stopped looking out for each other – and that has been shown by your incredible generosity supporting our annual Hamper Appeal.

We zigzagged our way across the borough, in a sleigh kindly provided by Kentish Town van hire firm H&H, to deliver our readers good wishes and Christmas cheer to neighbours in need of a little extra love.

Margaret Duffy, a volunteer tenants’ representative at a sheltered housing complex in the Brunswick Centre, Bloomsbury, collected hampers from Truffles Deli – the Dartmouth Park-based independent food shop that has kindly provided us with hampers loaded with treats.

She said: “We couldn’t have a Christmas party this year, so having these gifts to take round to everyone has really helped make it a special holiday for us.”

Don’t open it just yet! Fallon receives her present

Community groups, churches, civic groups and charities all benefitted from your generosity – with your help, we have sent seasonal goodies, presents and kitchen cupboard staples to help those in need get through the holiday period.

One stop we made was to meet three-year-old Fallon. We handed over a hamper on your behalf to her grand­father and Fallon received a present, kindly donated by the heroic emergency medical technicians who work on Camden ambulances, to kick off her Christmas.

Emma Brooks from Hampstead Community Centre with Ann Smyth from Truffles Deli, and Emma’s daughter Bluebell

One older woman, who lives alone in Queen’s Crescent and did not wish to be named, told our hamper team how much she appreciated the gift.

She said: “It’s not just that the hamper is full of things that I couldn’t normally buy – it’s the idea that people around here care. I l­ook at people reading the New Journal in the cafe and I wonder if they chipped in to something like this. It’s lovely.”

We’ll tell you more about our hamper deliveries next week.