A KIND hearted community has come together to save Christmas after a man with special needs left his presents at a shopping village.

Aaron Ryan, 31, who lives in Stanway, had just finished shopping for presents at an icy cold Braintree village when his girlfriend fell over outside.

In the panic to make sure she was okay, he left the bag containing three gifts he had just bought in the Perfume Shop.

Mr Ryan, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was distraught after losing the £78 worth of presents and his sister Cassiopeia Miranda went back to look for them.

The bag of presents was gone by the time she arrived but she posted on Facebook, with the hopes someone had picked it up and would return it.

Much to her surprise she was inundated with offers to donate money for Aaron to be able to repurchase the gifts.

A total of £128 was raised from small contributions from Braintree Hub members.

Miss Miranda said: “I will be donating the extra money to Julia Best, at Warm Hearts Cold Hands Homeless Charity for Chelmsford, Braintree and Witham.

“My friend Mikel Jarvis explained what happened to the shop and they gave him a discount and gave him some freebies too.

“It was a completely unexpected response from the people of Braintree.

“I didn’t have any expectations that people would want to raise money for him.

“My brother is so grateful and is going to write everyone a letter.

“He doesn’t have Facebook, so I don’t think he understood it fully.

“I let him know that everyone offered to replace them."

Miss Miranda said the response had been overwhelming. 

“A lot of strangers were more than happy to support him without knowing him," she said. 

“Everyone is so worried about rising costs, so for people to suggest they have an extra few pounds for something so insignificant is really lovely.

“I think Braintree is quite a charitable community, everyone seems willing to help.

“I can’t say thank you enough, I can’t find enough words.”