John first came to The Connection in 2010, and this is his story:

I was easy-going, happy, had a lot of friends. Had a life. But that disappeared. Everything I had, knew, owned, disappeared. I didn’t know where to turn. And the friends I had - friends are always friends when you are in a good position. When you are in a bad position your friends are very few.

I found friends here, I found people for whom I’m no relation but they go out of their way to see I’m ok.  As we speak I have family members 5 miles from here. They know my situation. Are they doing anything to help? No.

These guys here have been MY family. And If I were to land the biggest job and get the biggest house I would give back hundreds-fold. These people are family to me now.

I got my place to live through them; I got my job placement through The Connection. They’ve given me everything I need to get this job. Even basic things like a suit and a pair of shoes for interviews. It’s all from here. So, in effect, everything I am today is because of this place.

Since 2010 I didn’t exist, 2010 – 2011 I was a no-one to everyone. These guys have been everything for me. I’m trying to get to the position where I can come back here and (say) you know what, ‘What can I do for you now?’ Honestly I don’t see myself leaving this place. I’ll always come back and say ‘What’s there to do? How can I help?’ But if I can do that, at least some of my demons will go away and at least I’ll go back to being the person I used to be and the person I used to like being.  

So I’m a work in progress basically, if that makes sense to you?

My Dad always took photos of us and I never understood why. But now when I look at those photos I sometimes know why he did it. Because it’s a way of capturing moments that you can’t have again.

Photography has always been something I used to do and when Sophie (at The Connection) said do you want to come and join us I said 'Yes'. Why not? Again it’s something they have given me that I used to be.

I love different people giving me their ideas and telling me that’s a nice picture. To me it’s just like I’m doing the things I used to do, I’m going back to being how I used to be. It might not mean anything else to them or to anyone else. But when I go back to my room I say ‘I like myself today’ – I’m not angry, I’m not hurt, I’m not angry at the world. But I’m going back to how I used to be.

View John's gallery of photos here

The Radio 4 St Martin-in-the-Fields Christmas Appeal launches on Sunday, 1st December

Hear how last year's appeal helped Helen furnish a home and David's relationship with his daughter.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites 

Alison, one of the many volunteers who work on the Christmas Appeal

"A gift from one lucky person to one who's less fortunate this year" - A quote from a donor to the Christmas Appeal

Thank You to everyone who has donated to this year's Radio 4 St Martin-in-the-Fields Christmas Appeal. As the Christmas decorations come down on this 12th night we'd like to share with you the fantastic news that the appeal has broken new records and to date stands at £1,523,000.

Sophie Balaam from the Connection at St Martins went to meet the team of volunteers who work away each day opening all the post that has been sent:

"There are 6 volunteers and they are all working like busy bees, the scene reminded me of Santa's Grotto! But instead of presents there are boxes and boxes full of post. There are piles of cheques being counted and hundreds of Christmas cards from donors which brighten up the room.

You might think this is a tedious job. The volunteers have been working every day since the appeal launched on the first weekend in December. But a couple of the ladies I spoke to said how much they enjoyed opening the post because lots of people include hand written notes, or letters, and many of the donations come with Christmas cards.

The generosity of those that donate is incredibly humbling - especially during these financially difficult times - in fact the average donation is £50 and Alison, one of the volunteers, said it's not unusual for people to give £200. And there is still plenty of post to open!

I want to thank everyone that has donated so far. You really are making a big difference to the appeal. And another thank you to our volunteers - keep up the good work!"

Sally Flatman is producer of The Radio 4 Appeal

• More about the Radio 4 Christmas Appeal and the donation page
• On the blog: A day with the Radio 4 Christmas Appeal

One young homeless woman tells me, when you are on the streets, it is as if the world is going on normally on the other side of the glass and if you could just take one step you could step back into that world.

Another man who was homeless for over 20 years smiles: "That glass looks so thin and fragile but it's very thick."

(Ed's note: You can hear from some of the people helped on this video slideshow - PM)

For the past few weeks I have been gathering stories for this years Radio 4 St Martin-in-the-Fields Christmas Appeal. I laugh with one interviewee as we compare notes on our favourite Radio 4 comedies. He was a project manager in construction, until a series of misfortunes including cancer, and debts left him with no money and no home. Originally from Glasgow he says "At least you won't run into your neighbour when you are 300 miles from home."

Libby Purves and I visit the night centre at The Connection for the report back programme Received with Thanks.

Listening back to the interview with a man who was sleeping there that night, I realise he keeps telling us how cold he gets, how hard it is to get warm, how he never really truly sleeps because he's so cold.

In Cardiff I met a woman who arrived back from hospital with her new baby only to be evicted from her house along with her two older sons and her partner. I joined her as she was given a grant for £250 by the Vicar's Relief Fund to help buy a bed, bedding and a cooker for the temporary accommodation they had just moved into. I was struck by her stoicism:

"I have to stay strong for my boys but it's all a front, deep down it's ripped me apart but if the boys see me upset it will upset them".

She bought a bed to be delivered later that afternoon "you just like to be snug don't you and have a good nights sleep".

The average Vicar's Relief Fund grant is £180 and takes just 3 days to turn around. These are crisis grants, helping to prevent an eviction, secure a tenancy or buy vital household goods. Grants go all over the UK.

The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields helps over 200 homeless people a day. They've faced reductions in their statutory funding and the Chief Executive describes last years record Radio 4 Christmas Appeal as a "lifeline".

So I want to thank every donor for every gift however big or small.

I also want to thank all the troubled people who give me their stories with such brutal honesty. The stories will be told through the Radio 4 Programmes Received with Thanks and the Vicar's appeal. They will be on our slideshow on the BBC Bigscreens or the web.

What is great about giving to this appeal is that people are not merely saying they support the charity financially they seem to say "We support what you are doing". It also says they care about the individuals whose stories have been told.

Sally Flatman is producer of The Radio 4 Appeal

• Find out more about the Radio 4 Appeal on the Radio 4 website including how to donate
• Read Ariel: BBC Radio 4 helps homeless appeal for 85th year

Editor's note. We've published several photographs from the homeless photographers group at St Martin-in-the-Fields since the Christmas Appeal started. This snowy scene by Blodeuwed really emphasises how hard this Winter has been for homeless people. If you haven't made a donation yet, you can do so on the Radio 4 web site - SB.

One million pounds for the Radio 4 Christmas Appeal. Yes, you read that right: one million pounds for the Christmas Appeal and we are still pinching ourselves!

Last year we reached almost £900,000 - that was remarkable but we know that appeals don't have a right to increase year-on-year and life is tough for many people at the moment.

Gwyneth Williams, Controller of Radio 4 says:

This is a wonderful result, particularly given the difficult economic times. Evidence, once again, of the generous kindness of Radio 4 listeners and the importance of the work being done at St Martin-in-the-Fields for vulnerable people in London and across the UK.

The one million is, of course, made up of many thousands of donations - including one gift of £2 given by someone who is currently homeless.

This appeal clearly has a very special place in the hearts of many of you - we know that, not just because we've reached a million pounds but also because of the letters you've sent in with your donations. One lady sent a cheque and said she had been giving 'ever since Dick Sheppard', the first vicar of St Martin's to give a Christmas Appeal.

Rev Nick Holtam with the pot of coins

This small but very heavy pot held by a smiling Rev Nicholas Holtam, the current vicar, also holds a lovely story. It is jammed full of small change! A listener heard the 2009 Appeal and decided to put her coppers into this pot during the year to give to the 2010 Christmas Appeal. When it came to delivering the money it was so heavy, her husband had to drive her and the pot to St Martins! Thank you.

I am sure that the cold weather in December made all of us acutely aware of how dreadful it must be to have no home in such weather. One listener wrote: "I have always been a bit judgemental with regard to the homeless but this cold snap has made me grateful for my warm and comfortable home. I cannot imagine anything worse than sleeping rough just now."

For those who like numbers Craig Norman who administers the Christmas Appeal tells me that it hit the £10,000 mark in 1939. It hit £100,000 in 1982.....and in 2010 it has achieved £1,000,000 - it truly is a landmark year. But as the Rev Nick Holtam says:

Austen Williams, who was my predecessor but one, died on the day of the Christmas Appeal 9 years ago and he heard the appeal and said one day they're going to reach a million pounds and actually we're standing on the shoulders of lots of people who've done this before and we've reached a million pounds - it is extraordinary.

Thank you.

Sally Flatman is producer of The Radio 4 Appeal

• Donations to the appeal are still coming in. Make yours on the Radio 4 web site.
• The picture was taken in Leinster Square, Bayswater in West London by Blodeuwed, a member of the homeless photographers group at The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields. More pictures from the group are on Flickr.
• The BBC Radio 4 Appeal has a Facebook page. Visit the page and click the 'Like' button for updates on the weekly appeal which raised a total of £1.5M for 52 charities last year.

We were planning to update you on the Christmas Appeal as we did last year on the 12th day of Christmas but we couldn't resist sharing our news. We are almost at last year's record total of £900,000 and it is not yet even christmas and as you will see from the picture - there is still a lot of post to open.

Currently you have raised £850,000 for the Radio 4 St Martin-in-the-Fields Christmas Appeal! As ever the donations come in all shapes and sizes... one of the volunteers told me how he opened one cheque for two pounds and then the next was two hundred - it's all those donations big and small that have got us to this amazing total.

The other lovely thing we wanted to share with you are the quotes from the letters we receive:

I used to have a good friend, Dennis, a homeless man who spoke so highly of you. He used to say if you are in the gutter, look up and you will see the stars.

Hello, I'm writing from a little village in Devon. There's over a foot of snow outside & the roads are frozen. I cannot imagine how anyone can be sleeping on the street tonight. Herewith my paltry contribution"

No donation is paltry to us, of course.

This is the money I would have spent on Christmas cards if I hadn't made them myself. I'm sending it after listening to your appeal on the radio.

Many of us are set for hard times ahead; I don't have much but at present have more than some so am happy to give when I can. Keep up the good work.

If you are in sight of a BBC big screen - there are 18 of them around the UK - look out for Jamie's audio slideshow. It is the first time this 84 year-old Radio appeal has appeared on the big screens... but why not? (If you happen to have a camera with you when you see it - perhaps you could take a picture for us?) So thank you so much for all your support and kind words. We will continue to open post over the Christmas period and we will be back to update you on the 12th day of Christmas.

Sally Flatman is producer of The Radio 4 Appeal

• Make a donation on the Radio 4 web site.
• Pictures by homeless photographers from The Connection's photography group are on Flickr.
• The BBC Radio 4 Appeal has a Facebook page. Visit the page and click the 'Like' button for updates on the weekly appeal which raised a total of £1.5M for 52 charities last year.

Editor's note: Sally Flatman, producer of all the Radio 4 Appeal programmes, brings us news from St Martin's. Make your own donation to the appeal on the Radio 4 web site - SB.

We've had an amazing start to this year's appeal - on Sunday, taking calls in London and Belfast from 8am till 10pm we received over £100,000. That is a record but you'll understand why we are still holding our breath - we don't underestimate the challenge of reaching last year's total of £900,000 particularly in the current economic climate.

The job of opening the post is really only just beginning but the team of volunteers is in place and working hard. (there are usually sacks of mail) As ever there are extraordinary donations like the postal orders which total £750 from someone who simply says that they: "spent two nights in the night shelter in 2001... thank you very much all involved".

We will keep in touch as the post gets opened. Thank you to all of you who have given via the web - again we are seeing more donations this year from the web but does this mean there will be fewer cheques? We still don't know at this stage.

If you haven't yet given and would still like to then please call 0800 082 82 84 or send your cheque made payable to St Martin-in-the-Fields Christmas Appeal to Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 4JJ. If you are giving via the web do spare a couple of minutes to watch Jamie Winter's slideshow: The World Through the Eyes of a Homeless Photographer.

In the meantime we thought we would share this picture with you - the post being answered back in 1950 ...note the sign on the wall - 'PLEASE DON'T TALK' And what a lot of hats...

Sally Flatman is producer of The Radio 4 Appeal

• Listen to the Radio 4 St Martin-in-the-Fields Christmas Appeal and make a donation on the Radio 4 web site.
• Listen to Libby Purves' Received with Thanks about how your donations are used.
• The BBC Radio 4 Appeal has a Facebook page. Like the page for updates on the weekly appeal which raised a total of £1.5M for 52 charities last year.

You always feel nervous at 7.55am when you are waiting for the Vicar's Radio 4 Christmas Appeal to go out on air - will the phones really start ringing any second. But I need not have worried, our Radio 4 listeners don't let us down - they were ringing to give to this the 84th annual appeal all day on Sunday.

The Reverend Nicholas Holtam says: "The volunteers answering the phones were marvellous. I kept hearing snippets of conversation. Someone gave £5, someone else £1,000, I was really struck that as the volunteers left at the end of their shift answering the phones they nearly all said, "Thank you. It is a privilege to be able to help." This is a very personal appeal with a lot of warmth and generosity."

Many were moved by the story in Received with Thanks, Libby Purves' report back programme how the money from the appeal is spent, of the homeless man who gives his shoes to an older homeless man whose shoes had been stolen. One listener wrote a cheque but also sent two pairs of men's shoes with a note which read: "I hope you can make good use of these - I wish you well."

Others liked hearing from Rosemary Morgan who first heard the Christmas Appeal when she was growing up in Wales, "it touched a spot" and she has been giving to it ever since. She is now 81 years old. The current vicar of St Martins thinks she must have been listening to the Rev Eric Loveday who was at the church from 1941-1947.

If you haven't seen Jamie Winter's photographs and slideshow do spare a couple of minutes to take a look. We knew we wanted to put a slideshow together for this year's appeal and the idea emerged to give clients at the Connection disposable cameras. A photography group was set up and very quickly we realised how powerful these pictures were. Now that photography group has won the Talk Talk Digital Heroes award.

Ben Richardson who runs the group said: "the group are bowled over - it's a huge recognition and everyone is very excited about the potential for doing something in the new year... it opens doors."

These pictures have the power to reveal to us things we don't know about homelessness. Libby Purves says:

Meeting people at the Connection is always fascinating and - despite the harshness of the lives they have come from - oddly heartening. It is extraordinary to meet a young man like Jamie, emerging from a loneliness and alienation so traumatic that he did not speak for months, and find him friendly, creative, and above all filled with hope that he will have a home and a job before long. His achievement - still in progress - is considerable, but so is the achievement of those who over those long months stuck by Jamie, encouraged him, and suggested outlets for his considerable gift of quirky creativity. I felt honoured that he was willing to talk to me and show me his witty, thoughtful photographs.

Sally Flatman is producer of The Radio 4 Appeal

• The Vicar's Christmas Appeal will be repeated at 3.25 on Thursday afternoon Make a donation on the Radio 4 web site.
• Received with Thanks will repeat at 3.45 on Thursday afternoon.
• Pictures by The Connection's photography group are on Flickr.
• The BBC Radio 4 Appeal has a Facebook page. Like the page for updates on the weekly appeal which raised a total of £1.5M for 52 charities last year.
• Picture of telephones by Dan Brady. Some rights reserved.

Have you ever wondered who will be on the end of phone when you ring up to give to the Radio 4 St Martin-in-the-Fields Christmas Appeal? Well if you hear the bells in the background you are through to the offices of St Martins in Trafalgar square where volunteers will answer the phones all day on Sunday - you might even get the vicar taking your call!

Gill - who is Assistant to the Controller of Radio 4 has answered the phones for many years she says:

What's special is getting a chance to talk to people all over the country, and it's lovely when in the background they can hear the bells of St Martins! We often talk about Radio 4 and the weather! Often callers have heard the broadcast and they say:'there but for the grace of God go I'. There's no complacency about our listeners, being homeless is not something that happens to other people, they understand how easily these things can happen.

Pam Rutherford is a BBC radio producer in the Science Unit:

Pam Rutherford.

I answered the phones a few years ago for the Radio 4 Christmas appeal and it was great fun and also quite moving at times. A few people who phoned up to make donations had similar stories of homelessness and had been helped out in the past by charities like the Radio 4 appeal. Their stories were inspiring. The vicar comes round and chats to you in the small gaps between taking phone calls! Basically it's great to help out with a charity that obviously does so much great work. I work about 500 metres down the road so I regularly walk past St Martin's and of course you often see homeless people around London so it's great to know there are places like The Connection and funds like the VRF which working to help them.

Last Sunday (28th Nov) Pam ran a marathon, raising money for the Christmas Appeal. Post marathon she said:

Err... it was very painful! I've done them before but this was the hardest ever - very cold and rainy. The charity was definitely a factor in keeping me going so thanks!

But don't be surprised if you get a Belfast accent. This year due to the volume of calls we took in 2009 we have recruited volunteers at the Capita call centre in Belfast where they answer our Radio 4 Appeal calls each week. They had plenty of desks and phones available on Sunday and offered to help out which is great.

Conor at Capita in Belfast:

We're looking forward to taking your calls on Sunday!

Sally Flatman is producer of The Radio 4 Appeal

• The Radio 4 Christmas Appeal begins on Sunday morning at 0755. Make a donation on the Radio 4 web site.
• Pictures by The Connection's photography group are on Flickr.
• The BBC Radio 4 Appeal has a Facebook page. Like the page for updates on the weekly appeal which raised a total of £1.5M for 52 charities last year.
• Picture of telephones by Dan Brady. Some rights reserved.

Editor's note: this blog post begins with a slideshow made by homeless photographer Jamie Winter, a member of a photography group run by The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields - SB

I once edited a Radio 4 debate about homelessness... We based it in the heart of London near Shaftesbury Avenue. The platform was filled with good people who worked hard and we drew out policy differences and approaches in the way we do at the BBC. A little way into the discussion the hall began to fill up with homeless people. Soon it was packed and the debate took a different turn as we responded to the voices of those who lived on the streets.

The atmosphere sharpened and simmered. A young woman, dark, with long hair, spoke up. I recall she said something like this: "If we took all you do-gooders and put your salaries together and split them up we could buy a flat for all of us homeless... why don't you just stop talking for once and think about that." I often think of her when it's cold - good time now perhaps to stop talking and support the Radio 4 Christmas Appeal.

Gwyneth Williams is Controller of BBC Radio 4 and Radio 7

• The Radio 4 Christmas Appeal begins on Sunday morning at 0755. Make a donation on the Radio 4 web site.
• Pictures by The Connection's photography group are on Flickr.
• The BBC Radio 4 Appeal has a Facebook page. Like the page for updates on the weekly appeal which raised a total of £1.5M for 52 charities last year.

Editor's note. You can make a donation to this year's Radio 4 Christmas Appeal on the St Martin-in-the-Fields web site - SB

The service at St Martin-in-the-Fields for homeless people who have died in the past year never fails to move me. During the service the names of those who have died are read out, today it was 156 names, the names are interspersed with prayers, poems and music. It was after this service back in 2006 that I first met Dave McKane.

Dave had been rough sleeping for over 20 years and afterwards over tea and sandwiches we talked. He became part of that year's Radio 4 Christmas Appeal - Received with Thanks programme, which reports on how the money from the appeal is spent. He told me: "they say that homelessness is easy to get used to, it's not, it's bloody hard work. You think you can survive but a lot don't." A reference I felt to the service we had both just sat through.

Dave was described as an entrenched rough sleeper, someone who it is really hard to move off the streets. I remember we chatted easily in the clothing stall - Dave selecting and describing the way to dress in layers to survive a winter on the streets, but he also talked about his darker moments when he would throw his rucksack in the Thames in anger or despair - or perhaps both.

Move forward two years - it's Autumn 2008 and as I start the recordings for the Christmas Appeal, staff at The Connection tell me I must interview Dave again - he's moved off the streets into a hostel. Dave poses for some photos, standing on the steps of the hostel recalling how when he first arrived the worker said "take that rucksack off" and how "to get the rucksack off was a relief". He proudly showed me his room and admitted that for the first week he slept in his sleeping bag on the floor, he was so unused to a bed. When he did finally 'hop into the bed' he slept for 23 hours. It was great to be able to tell Dave's story in the programme, to show that donations really could make a difference.

I've done the recordings for this year's programme and a theme that has emerged is that staff feel they must never give up on clients, even when those clients try to push them away, "they feel they're not worthy, we know they are". The work is painstaking, sometimes two steps forward, one step back, it takes patience. As I leave the church, after this year's service for those who died homeless, I pause to chat to one of the priests, then look behind me to see a tall man, smartly dressed in a dark suit with a black tie and yes it's Dave. He greets me with a hug, asks after my family and then tells me how he has moved into a flat now. I comment on how well he looks - he laughs and tells me he's looking after himself now. He loves cooking and where others might hate the trip to Tesco to get some supper, he 'could spend all day in there'! I ask if I can take his photo on the church portico.

We're now in the countdown to this year's appeal, over the next 3 weeks we'll be promoting it on air, on the Radio 4 website, on the Radio 4 facebook page and then on the 5th December we'll open the phone lines and hold our breath for that first call. Last year we raised almost £900,000 none of us know how that comes from this small 3 minute appeal - it's a bit of a minor miracle but I'm heartened by my chance meeting with Dave maybe he's a good omen for this year...

Sally Flatman is Producer of the Radio 4 Appeal

• Make a donation to this year's Radio 4 Christmas Appeal on the St Martin-in-the-Fields web site.
• Learn more about The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields on the web site.
• The picture shows Dave McKane outside St Martin-in-the-Fields in London after the service. It was taken by Sally Flatman.

Sunday, December 6th: Appeal day. The taxi drops me at St Martin's before 0700. It's dark, it's raining, and I notice two men sheltering with their belongings as best they can on the steps of the church. Into the office to switch on computers and a last-minute test of the phones.

I like to describe myself as being a bit like Santa - he and I both spend most of the year planning for the big day. The Christmas Appeal isn't the only thing I do: most of the time, I run the Vicar's Relief Fund, spending half of the money from the Appeal. Every day, support workers up and down the country send me requests on behalf of their clients. It may be rent arrears, usually because of problems with benefits, that are putting them at risk of becoming homeless; or they may be homeless and have a chance of obtaining a tenancy, but need a deposit, or a bed or cooker to put in it and begin to set up a home. Each request is considered, but the money has to last until the end of the financial year, and if I want to be sure that we can continue to meet crisis needs until then, I have to sift through each request and identify which ones will get a grant and which ones won't. Even though we try to make the money go as far as possible, I still have to say "no" to many more requests than to the ones I can say "yes, we'll help". Making that decision is the hardest part of my job, because I know that there's a person or a family behind that piece of paper who needs help. But it's necessary to prioritise the requests; otherwise we would run out of money in six months and spend the rest of year saying "no" to every request, even those in the most desperate need. Finding the balance between helping and staying within budget is rather like driving down a steep mountain road, riding the brakes just enough to keep the car going but not too fast that tumble off a cliff. This is why we need the Christmas Appeal to be a success.

This year's money will run out at the end of March. Next year's money will come from this year's Christmas Appeal, so careful planning is needed to ensure as many people as possible know about it and know how to support us. And when they do decide to support us, we've got to be sure we have the ability to accept their donation however they want to give it to us. This year, I've had meetings with our partners at BBC, our phone suppliers and many others, working towards this day when volunteers would give up part of their Sunday to take calls. By this stage, I was fairly sure the technical bit that had been planned out over the past few months would work: now we just needed people to ring in.

By 0730, others start to arrive: the phone engineer (just in case it doesn't work), the Vicar with breakfast things, the volunteers. The volunteers are people from all walks of life: we have members of the St Martin's congregation, our business manager and her husband, bankers, lawyers, secretaries from the big companies in the area. There's something about the Christmas Appeal that draws these people together, something that links them - and the people around the country they will be speaking with - to what this church represents and the work that we do. Is it simply a desire to help? To right a wrong? Or a recognition that there but for the grace of God go any of us.

Gradually, the volunteers take their places and get ready. The Appeal is broadcast at 0755. As it draws to a close and Nick's recorded voice reads out the number, I look at my watch. 10 seconds go by. 20... no phones ringing. How can it not be working? After 30 long seconds, just as we're about to ring the number ourselves to test it, the phones ring. Volunteers swoop on the calls and begin collecting names, addresses and credit card details.

Donors responding to the Appeal give what they can. Sometimes it's a little bit of money, sometimes it's a lot. Often, older people will tell us: "This is my heating allowance. I don't need it, so you can have it". Or: "I'm sorry it can't be more". But every little bit helps, and the volunteers graciously accept each donation, regardless of size.

And gradually, these various amounts of money start adding up, and by the time the first shift finishes at 0930 the total is over £7000.

The second shift take over; we now have a full house. In the slot before "The Archers", "Received with Thanks" is broadcast and I can use the online monitoring system to see the waiting time creep up as the volume of calls increase. At times like this, callers include people for whom the glass is half-empty as well as those for whom it is half full: some are indignant that they've had to wait so long, while the fact they've had to wait so long makes others realise that we are busy and must be doing well.

We could, of course, install an automated system, or we could outsource the calls to a call centre. Instead, we prefer to stick to the personal touch and use these volunteers. We know from donor's comments that they prefer to speak to a real person; if they time it right, they'll even get to hear the bells of St Martin's in the background. We may not quite carry off the polished professionalism bigger charities are able to mount, of course, but in the end, we're just a little operation working out of a church office. I think a lot of donors expect us to be a bit scruffy round the edges, and appreciate us for being so.

After a while, the calls begin to subside. The phones - and the volunteers answering them - have come through their toughest test. By 1100, we've topped £20,000 (that's about 4 or 5 weeks worth of Vicar's Relief Fund grants), and I can start to feel a bit more relaxed.

The sun shines through the windows. Calls peak and trough throughout the day and into the evening. It gets dark. Weariness settles over me like an itchy blanket. Despite the long day, I'm amazed how quickly the time goes.

Shifts of volunteers come and go. Sometimes it's difficult to get someone out of the chair for the next volunteer to take over. There's something almost addictive about what they're doing, as if they can't get enough of the feeling that's passing through the phone line, or they are wrenching themselves away from an unfinished task. When they do go, they often act as if they are leaving a party, rather than having spent the previous two hours concentrating over names, addresses and lots of numbers. Their parting words are often: "See you next year!"

Finally, at 2200, calls are diverted to the BBC call centre. The last donations are processed and we look at the final results: in this one day, the Christmas Appeal has collected over £60,000 in phone donations. I know more than £30,000 has been donated through the website. Hopefully, this will be the tip of the iceberg: the BBC will continue to take calls until another group of volunteers come in Thursday afternoon when Radio 4 repeat the Appeal. Cheques have already started to arrive in the post. Calls and web donations will, with any luck, continue through the month and perhaps into January. In spite of the recession, I'm beginning to think this might be a good year.

I couldn't finish without expressing my thanks to everyone who helped make the day such a success: to my colleague, Rod, who cheerfully ran around gathering volunteers from the door, making coffee and doing all those little things to help the day go smoothly; to Bronwyn who, as usual, minded the shop during the afternoon so I could grab some lunch and start this blog; to all the enthusiastic volunteers; to the people who do the technical bits with phones and websites that I will never fully understand but am just grateful that they work; and to all those generous people who gave what they could to help us help others in need. Thank you.

Craig Norman is Vicar's Relief Fund Administrator at St Martin-in-the-Fields

• Craig reports that between Sunday morning and 0900 Tuesday morning, £134,734 had been given. Click here to add to that total.
• The picture shows volunteers working the phones at St Martin's on Sunday morning.
• Listen to the 83rd Annual BBC Radio 4 St Martin-in-the-Fields Christmas Appeal and Libby Purves' Received with Thanks on the Radio 4 web site.
• More information at the St Martin's web site and The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields web site.
• The Radio 4 appeal has a Wikipedia entry, which also covers the Christmas appeal.

Back to Trafalgar Square for another year, in a strange flat limbo between the departure of the last Antony Gormley plinth-person and the arrival of the big Christmas tree. This time last year - as right now - I was involved in the Radio 4 Christmas appeal, for the work of St Martin-in-the-Fields with homeless and vulnerable people. The fund is shared two ways; half goes to the Connection at St Martin's - shelter and outreach for homeless people - and half to something called the Vicar's Relief Fund (we'll come to that later).

Normally, you'd think that from year to year things would feel much the same. This year, they don't. While economists and companies brightly talk of the recession 'bottoming out' and spirits rising, and bankers suck of bonuses as big as before, the fallout is still absolutely real, right here. In the centre next to St Martins' called the Connection, they have more clients, and most of them are far from being the cartoonish image of the 'tramp'. As someone said last year, any of us is only two or three bad decisions away from the pavement. Sometimes it's drink, sometimes drugs, but as often as not the stories you hear are just about lost jobs, broken relationships, fractured family life, and the sort of pride which stops you from asking for help in time. It keeps you sleeping on friend's sofas or walking all night and dozing on benches by day, carrying a neat-looking tourist backpack so that nobody need know it holds all your worldly possessions.

The blow to pride, and the difficulty of climbing back up to normality without losing it, is one of the recurring themes which outreach workers and clients both stress. The Connection - businesslike, practical, civil, comradely - deals well with it. And in the companionable atmosphere of the art room and the writer's group, the deeper wilder feelings can be let out in safety, and the healing begins.

So I like the Connection, these visits and the voices which my producer Sally Flatman and I collect there. But there's another half to this 83-year-old Radio 4 appeal, granted to St Martins by Lord Reith, less dramatic perhaps but immensely valuable: a fund which provides a stitch in time, a quick necessary patch to stop the whole financial dam breaking and overwhelming people. It is called the Vicar's Relief Fund, and inside the stately 18th Century church, beneath the gilded ceiling, the Vicar himself Nick Holtam likes to run us through some of the year's beneficiaries.

But the name - Vicar's Relief Fund? Blimey, how retro can you get? In an age which prefers to witter about delivery and empowerment and service-users, the very title has a stern Victorian ring to it. Personally, I rather like that (I always fear that my loyalty as a donor to the Salvation Army might erode if it ever abandoned its little 1886 red shield logo or changed its name to "Save!"). But the Vicar's Relief Fund is not at all retro: it provides a very modern service, in the age of fines and mounting interest and compulsory paperwork.

What it does is to give small grants for specific immediate needs - average only about £160, often as low as £40 - and to give them very, very quickly (unlike the DSS). Social workers, clergy, community workers or Citizens Advice Bureaus make the requests, so they are all known to be genuine and urgent, and the Fund responds fast. That stops fines and interest building up, or a domestic crisis becoming dangerous. Sometimes it's rent arrears after a sudden bereavement, sometimes some vital bedding for a new baby, sometimes replacement of a broken cooker (the alternative, if you're poor, being one of those terrible HP scams where you end up paying five times its value). Given a bit of bad luck and trouble any of us could find ourselves needing a small sum, quickly, to prevent the spiral into ever deeper debt. One of this year's Vicar's Relief Fund grants was £60.94 to replace a builder's registration card so he could work - rather than remain homeless. It did the trick. He's back at work. And sleeping in a bed.

So I like this half of the appeal too. It appeals to my quarter- Scottish DNA and the shade of my Fifeshire father - a stitch in time, a brief hand up the slippery slope, a nod to human dignity, not too much said. Sometimes - memorably last year, with a retired engineer who lost the financial plot after his wife died - a beneficiary is willing to talk about what the Vicar's Relief Fund did for them in a hard time. But they don't have to. Quickly and quietly, it does its bit and steps back out of the limelight. Except at Christmas, when we celebrate it - and you fund it. Thanks.

Libby Purves is a broadcaster and radio presenter. She presents Received with Thanks, Radio 4's programme about the appeal

• This year's appeal takes place on BBC Radio 4 on 6th and 10th December. Volunteers from Radio 4 and from St Martin-in-the-Fields will answer the phones, accepting donations from people all over Britain. Last year over £750,000 was raised.
• The photograph, by producer Sally Flatman, shows the possessions of one of The Connection's clients, including a newly-issued birth certificate. When you're homeless or living in a hostel, your bag and its contents take on extra importance. A frequent task for workers at The Connection is obtaining duplicate birth certificates for people who have lost theirs and thus find it hard to get work or a place to live. There are more pictures here.