When Tesco called to offer a donation of toys for Richard House Children’s Hospice’s charity shops, it was always going to be gratefully received.

But the charity’s head of retail, Louise Hamilton, had no idea just how many toys the supermarket chain’s Lakeside branch was going to send over.

The toys took up an entire storage room at one of the shops and will be distributed to all six just in time for the Easter holidays.

Louise said “Next to Christmas, Easter is our busiest trading period for toys so we were thrilled to receive such a generous donation out of the blue from Tesco.

“We’re exceedingly grateful to the store manager Steve Allen and Amit Savmotta for authorising the donation and to Leah Bryant and her co-driver Sam Boateng for helping to carry so many boxes to our stock room.”

The toys will now be sold to help raise money for the Beckton hospice, which supports young people with life-limiting conditions and their families.