FOOTBALL star Marc Pugh has ensured dozens of Dorset youngsters will be ‘over the moon’ this Christmas.

The Cherries midfielder paid a surprise visit to the Daily Echo’s Richmond Hill HQ this week – armed with bags full of festive gifts for the paper’s Toy Appeal.

Likeable Lancastrian Marc, who lives in Ferndown with wife Laura and young daughters Halle and Grace, told the Echo: “My wife read about the appeal on the Echo website and we just hated the thought of a child going without a gift on Christmas Day.

"It’s a great cause and a great campaign and as soon as we saw it we just wanted to do something and help out.

“We like to give to a few charities and it’s an important thing to give back because we consider ourselves to be very fortunate in our lives.

“We love everything about the Echo’s campaign and I love being able to help out.”

Marc took time in between training ahead of tonight’s mouth-watering Capital One Cup quarter-final clash against Premier League heavyweights Liverpool to deliver the gifts – much to the displeasure of youngest daughter Grace.

He added: “Grace was getting really excited thinking the toys were all hers, but I did pick up a couple of things for her and my other daughter Halle too!

“But some of the children who this campaign is about go without even one single gift and that’s a horrible thought.”

The Echo Toy Appeal is now in its 18th year and will see gifts donated to those who might otherwise have nothing to open during the festive season.

Sick youngsters and their siblings will be given the presents through the Amelia-Grace Rainbow Fund, set up following eight-year-old Amelia-Grace Cooper’s death three years ago from childhood cancer.