BIG-HEARTED staff at a Brierley Hill foundry have dug deep to raise money to buy gifts to bring festive cheer to youngsters affected by domestic abuse.

A total of £3,400 was raised at Brockmoor Foundry this year to buy toys for children being helped by Sandwell’s Women’s Aid and New Beginnings, which has two refuges - one in Dudley and the other in Halesowen.

Employees at the iron castings firm on the Leys Estate, Brockmoor, have been collecting and buying presents for the charitable causes each Christmas since 2009 .

Office and foundry workers this year donated £1,200 and the figure was match funded by the company and bolstered further by a £1,000 donation from the Unite union.

Sunita Sharma, HR advisor at Brockmoor Foundry, said: “We do it every year and people donate however much they can. This year it’s been a really good amount.”

She added: “We do get quite a lot of people that dig deep.”

The company, which employs 167 staff, has raised around £16,500 for the causes over the last eight years.

Staff handed over the toys they’d bought last Friday – so they will be delivered to the youngsters in time for Christmas.