IT’S 6am. My mouth’s parched and I’ve got a headache.

The newsroom was out in Old Town last night, full of the Christmas spirit. So were my housemates – albeit celebrating with slightly stronger spirits.

Unluckily for me it’s the first day of my foodbank challenge.

For the next three days I’m only allowed to cook and eat what would be handed over to people in a three-day emergency foodbank box.

The diet experiment is part of the Adver’s Christmas appeal – Buy Xtra This Xmas. We are urging Swindon shoppers to buy a little more in the run up to Christmas Day and donate it to Swindon’s Foodbank.

The essential service, which last year handed out 47 tonnes of food, helps people who often feel they have nowhere else to turn.

The box contains all the staples you could need to see you through a period of hardship. There’s tinned vegetables, soup, a Fray Bentos pie and enough tea bags to drown a battalion.

But there’s no bacon.

And this morning that’s what my body’s crying out for.

I sip a glass of water and head into the newsroom.

11am brings a new challenge. I’m in the Railway Village at the Christmas opening of their historic cottage.

Dressed in festive decorations, it’s the picture of Christmas Eve 1895. Volunteers from the Mechanics Institution Trust have baked mince pies.

Daniel Rose, the director of the trust, jokes: “I’m not sure if in the Victorian period they would have catered for gluten-free and vegan mince pies.”

I’m too hungry to laugh. I didn’t eat any breakfast and I’ve forgotten to bring the packet of NICE biscuits that I bought as part of my foodbank shop.

I face a dilemma. Can I eat the mince pies? Is that cheating?

Scoffing two, I hope that not buying the pies means it won’t matter.

I eat tinned minestrone soup for lunch, heated up in the only clean bowl I can find in the Adver building.

I’m home by 7.30pm, trying to work out what to eat.

Cher Smith, the manager of Swindon Foodbank, said that combining ingredients was key. Tinned potatoes, spam and baked beans becomes a pie.

“It’s about eking it out,” she told me.

I settle on curry. In my Foodbank box I’ve got a jar of Tikka Masala sauce, 500g of white rice and enough tinned veg to stop an ox.

I fry off some spices in a pan: cumin, coriander, paprika and cinnamon. It smells delicious.

The tinned peas have gone a parched green – the colour of rotting cheese. They go in the pan, along with the sauce.

I make far too much curry and gobble it down with water. It’s too much and I doze in front of a film with my housemates.

You can donate food, toiletries and other Christmas goodies by leaving them at the Swindon Advertiser’s Victoria Road office or at any of the Swindon Foodbank’s donation points at larger supermarkets.

To get support from Swindon Foodbank, call 01793 686510 or visit one of their centres. Full details are available from swindon.foodbank.org.uk.