A man who has struggled with his mental health for a number of years has been helping others by donning a Santa outfit and handing out gifts - all while raising money for CFM’s Cash for Kids Mission Christmas appeal.

Anthony Scott, from Carlisle, suffered with epilepsy as a child, spending more time in the hospital than at school. When he was just 11 he was admitted to hospital where he fell into a coma. After life-saving treatment he made a miraculous recovery and was later able to return to school.

This is where he was bullied and in later life this had an impact on his mental health, however, he’s not let that stop him.

For a while now, Anthony has become the lockdown Santa. He’s been dressing up as the famous Mr Claus, going out and delivering presents, all while helping to raise money to ensure no children goes without a gift this Christmas.

He said: “As a delivery driver for Amazon, I thought I’d buy some gifts for my customers because some of them live in some remote areas.

“I’m the only person they might see that day so why not get them a gift. So I thought I’d get a T-shirt and I’d make a page up.”

Since then the idea has evolved and most weekends Anthony can been seen out and about in the community delivering gifts, socially distanced, to people and visiting those who haven’t been able to see anyone because of lockdown.

Talking about how it’s going and why he decided to raise money for Cash for Kids, he said: “I thought it would be a good idea while I’m doing it to raise some money for the children at Christmas.

“It’s mental at the minute, there’s messages, donations, requests - I can’t keep up with it. I like helping people and making people smile.”

Anthony is definitely going to keep the idea going up until Christmas and is then hoping he can evolve it in the new year around different themes like Halloween and Easter. To follow Anthony’s journey find the Lockdown Santa on Facebook.