THE heart-wrenching scene at the end of Ken Loach’s masterful drama Cathy Come Home, in which the desperate Cathy, cursed by the twin demons of bad luck and scribbling local government bureaucracy, screams down the Heavens as her children are snatched away by social services, has left its indelible mark on our collective consciousness for many a good reason.

It’s not so much the clinical excision of mother and child, something to which most reasonably minded people would not object if it were in the child’s best interest.

But, rather, the simple realisation that nobody – quite literally, nobody – is exempt from the devastating power of bathos.

And so it is with the great scourge of modern society – homelessness, which so easily conjures in the mind the frightening thought: ‘It could be me’. Much has been written about this crushing malaise. “It is fatal to look hungry.

It makes people want to kick you,” wrote George Orwell in Down and Out in Paris and London, the two-part memoir of his experiences of poverty in the early 1930s.

And despite the construction of the welfare state, it’s doubtful that much has changed from the point of view of the utterly destitute – the air is still cold, the concrete still hard, the newspapers not quite thick enough to break the wind.

But there is in Swindon a modest group of people who are determined to make sure that those who have nothing are given something this Christmas.

The volunteers behind one of Swindon’s most successful charitable initiatives, Christmas Care, are preparing for another year of feeding, clothing and entertaining the homeless.

In late November, volunteers held a special recruitment evening at St Joseph’s College in Ocotal Way, in which they encouraged people to give up their time to help others from December 24 until December 28, at Buckhurst Community Centre.

One of Christmas Care’s trustees, Diane Killick, was blown away by the amount of people who had packed into the college’s sports hall with the aim of giving something back to those less fortunate this Christmas.

Addressing the 60 or 70 people gathered, Diane said: “It is truly remarkable to see so many new faces here tonight. We are all volunteers, we are just the same as you. We do this because it is very important to us, and we hope it is important to you, too.”

Christmas Care, described by Diane as “an open-door charity”, celebrates its 29th birthday this year, and it still remains a lifeline for those who have nowhere to go over the festive period.

In a direct appeal for volunteers, Diane, a lady clearly born with a natural propensity for helping others, said: “You can imagine the number of people we need to keep this project ticking over. If we can’t get enough people to help, we simply won’t be able to offer this service to those who need it.”

The shelter, which runs 24 hours a day, welcomes anyone in need - whether they be homeless, living on a low income or are alone during the festive period. On arrival, guests are offered a change of clothes and bedding. Breakfast, lunch and an evening buffet are served by volunteers working shifts each day.

Diane said: “It’s not for the faint-hearted, but it is very rewarding. As well as food and shelter, we provide our guests with entertainment such as board games and TV, but it’s all about making sure they have some company at this time of year. We want them to feel as though they are in a family environment.”

Volunteers also require donations with which they might feed their guests. Tinned and dried food, as well as perishable and frozen foodstuffs, are most welcome. So too are clothes, books and board games.

Forty six-year-old Claire McGurk was one of the generous people who put her name down for a shift at Buckhurst over Christmas. She has never done anything like this before, and she decided to get involved after seeing an advertisement on Facebook.

She said: “Christmas is supposed to be about giving to other people. These people have absolutely nothing, and the least we can do is make sure they get a decent Christmas. It’s all about making someone’s life a bit special at this time of year.”

Oscar Wilde was never more stupid than when he said that charity creates a multitude of sins. There can be little doubt that without the likes of Diane and Claire, Christmas would be an intolerably miserable time for a lot of people.

Georgina Mepham, 27, also applied to volunteer. She said: “Christmas is all about sharing things with family and the ones you love, and it’s nice to be able to give something back. It’s really sad that there are people who don’t have the opportunity to spend Christmas with loved ones.

“They say we are never more than a few paycheques away from losing our homes, and I think homeless people get very unfairly stereotyped. It could happen to any one of us, and I would like to think there would be someone there to help me if I needed it.”

There’s a world outside your window, and it’s a world of dread and fear, so goes the song. But that world of which the pop glitterati sing each year is closer than we think. It doesn’t just reside in faraway lands, but on our own doorsteps.

“It had to be shocking. It couldn’t be other than shocking,” said film director Ken Loach about the scene mentioned at the start of this piece.

That so many people are left without food or shelter in 21st century Britain, not just at Christmas time, can be described in exactly the same way. But what is not remotely surprising is that there are equally as many who are willing to give up their time to help others. And that is what Christmas is all about.

Any items wishing to be donated can be brought to Buckhurst Community Centre in Walcot on Saturday, December 16 and Saturday, December 23 between 10am and 3pm.