Secret Santa Sends Gifts to Amputee Soldier

12 days before Christmas, a disabled soldier discovered a gift from a mystery giver. And they just kept coming.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on December 31 2008

Major Mark Campbell of Edmonton, Alberta, has had a rough year. Last June, while stationed in Afghanistan, he knelt down upon a hidden landmine. When it exploded, Campbell was severely injured—both of his legs had to be amputated below the knee.

He didn’t think he and his family would have much to celebrate this Christmas. But 12 days before the holiday, his family discovered a gift in their driveway: a gingerbread house-making kit for Campbell’s nine year old daughter. The card was signed “The Spirit of Christmas.”

The anonymous gift wasn’t an isolated incident—over the next 11 days, the family was presented with many other goodies, including movie passes, a Christmas puzzle, and a jar of treats.

“It rocked me back in my wheelchair,” Mark told the Edmonton Journal. “All I can say is, ‘Wow.’ Because you really don’t expect that kind of thing unless it happens to you.”

The family isn’t sure who’s responsible for the mysterious gift-giving, but thinks it may be a friend from their neighborhood or a military buddy.

No matter who is responsible for the act, though, the family feels nothing but gratitude.

“It wasn’t what they gave us,” said Campbell’s wife, Donna. “It was just the whole idea of they wanted to make us have a nice Christmas. It was such a wonderful thing.”

Filed under: General Interest, Weird,

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