VOLUNTEERS across Wales are preparing to support children during their darkest hours this Christmas.

Childline, which has two bases in Wales - Prestatyn and Cardiff - helps hundreds of young people across the festive period, including many struggling to cope with mental health problems.

In 2018/19, more than 600 counselling sessions were delivered by staff and volunteers from the NSPCC’s Childline bases in Wales across a 12-day period over Christmas and New Year.

Almost 100 counselling sessions delivered during this time by the NSPCC Cymru/Wales service were on mental or emotional health, with other young people seeking support around feeling suicidal, family relationships, self-harm and sexual abuse.

Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer has been supporting volunteers.

The actor and ambassador for Childline, which has 12 sites across the UK, recently visited the London service at night.

She said: “The calls that came in, to be quite honest, sideswiped me. Within the first 25 minutes there were two suicide calls with counsellors helping the young people through the reoccurring thoughts that were haunting them.”

Childline is to children and young people, whatever their worry, 24/7 throughout the Christmas holidays.

One 13-year-old girl who contacted Childline during the night said: “I feel really down tonight. I have a counsellor who I see regularly and who I would usually go to for support but I will not be able to get hold of them because it is the Christmas holidays.

"I was told I could speak to someone at Childline.

"I have anxiety and find it difficult to cope and have tried to kill myself before. I don’t want to live but don’t want to upset my family.”

Due to demand and a shortage of resources, Childline is only able to help two in every three children that contact them in December and during the rest of the year.

Dame Esther Rantzen, Childline founder and President, said: “Christmas is the time of year we think about children, and most of them are happy, excited and loved. But many of the young people that contact Childline are unhappy, abused and neglected. One of them told me: ‘Christmas is like looking through a window, seeing happy families warm and loved while you are standing outside in the dark and cold.’

“For some young people, Christmas can be the hardest time of year, when their problems feel magnified, making them even more isolated than ever.

"At Childline we must be there for every young person that needs us. But to achieve this we urgently need the public’s help, which is why it is vital they support the NSPCC Christmas Appeal ‘Light for Every Childhood’.”

Help for children and young people - Call Childline on 0800 1111 or visit www.childline.org.uk