BIG-HEARTED Journal readers have done it yet again.

Each year, when we launch our Christmas appeal, we ask them to help us ensure that every needy person in our community gets a spot of festive cheer by receiving at least one present.

And each time, readers amaze us by providing more gifts than the previous year.

Incredibly, this year is no exception. Once again, the response from our wonderful readers has been simply magnificent - and thanks to their efforts we shall be handing over a record number of goodies to social services and local charities on Monday.

The official hand-over will take place at our offices in Rollestone Street at 9am and the agencies receiving the mountain of presents will ensure they reach the people they are intended for in good time for Christmas.

Meanwhile, you still have until tomorrow to contribute last-moment gifts to the appeal.

As you go about completing your own Christmas shopping, please spare a thought for someone less fortunate and buy a little something for them.

Then, please gift-wrap it, label it to indicate whether it is for a baby, a boy or a girl, a man or a woman - and which age group - and hand it in at the Journal offices in Rollestone House, Rollestone Street, Salisbury, opposite the bus station.

We will do the rest.

"He felt frustrated, as he had been very independent and a very active man," she said.

"He did not relish the thought of going into a nursing home on a regular basis."

She said her father returned to Home Sarum House and she telephoned him on July 6, telling him she was going into hospital for an operation and would not be able to visit him until the following week.

"The only negative thing he said was that he was feeling sad," she said.

The next morning, cleaner Louise Taylor was unable to make Mr Parsons hear when she called at his flat and she asked house manager Andrew Greenlees to help her.

He used his set of keys to open the flat door and the pair found Mr Parsons slumped in a chair with a bag over his head, foil strips of pills - mostly empty - nearby and two handwritten notes.

WDC Alison Wiles, investigating officer for Wiltshire Police, said the notes were in full view of anyone coming into the room and one gave details of financial donations Mr Parsons wanted made.

The police found no suspicious circumstances - the door had been locked from the inside and there was no sign of a disturbance in the room.

Salisbury District Hospital pathologist Sue Burroughs found the cause of death to be plastic-bag suffocation.

Mr Parsons had taken 20 times the therapeutic dose of paracetamol but this did not directly contribute to his death, said Dr Burroughs.

Mr Bache, recording a verdict that Mr Parsons killed himself, said the stroke had left Mr Parsons with "a vision of the future which alarmed him".

"I am satisfied that he was well aware of what he was doing and that he carried it out with the intention of bringing about his death."