A MUM showed her five-year-old daughter the true spirit of Christmas by donating 50 teddy bears to sick children in hospital.

Mara Soto moved to England six years ago from Cuba and her only family member in this country is her child Kiki. She explained to her that there were very ill children who wouldn’t be having a great festive season and needed cheering up

Mara, of Stratton, said: “I grew up with nothing and helping others has always been a priority to me. You don’t have to have much to be able to give.”

Forty of the teddies went to the children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Movement and the remaining 10 were donated to the special care baby unit at the Great Western Hospital.

She said: “I don’t have family here and I think Kiki is at the age where she can understand what is going on so I wanted to show her how giving a present can really have an impact on someone.

“It was an amazing feeling to be able to give the teddy bears and see their faces. It is not what you get that makes you happy but what you do for others.”

Richard Crowley, chairman of CALM, said: “We are extremely grateful and cannot thank Mara and Kiki enough for what they have done, this kind gesture will mean so much to the children here.

“Many of them have had a very tough year after going through chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

“We want to help make this a great Christmas for them and this has helped us tremendously.”

Some of the poorly youngsters were as young as two. Their brothers and sisters also received a teddy bear.

Children at Colebrook Infant Academy in Nythe, where Kiki is a pupil, also got involved with the special project by making Christmas cards to go with the cuddly characters.

In recent years the 42-year-old Mara has undertaken a series of fundraising walks for charities and good causes in the town. Last year she walked 130 miles to Brighton and raised more than a thousand for Swindon STEP, which helps bullied children.

She spent more than £300 of her own money to purchase the Teddy Mountain bears online as a gift.

To keep the occasion magical and Christmassy for her daughter she told her that she ordered the toys from the elves in the North Pole. An elf was also waiting inside the box to give her the teddies.

Mara added: “This will be a memory that we will cherish forever and I hope it will serve my daughter well for the future.”