Fed up of overspending and battling the crowds in December, his early bird wife had snagged some serious deals on Christmas presents for their children, which she thought she had stored in a safe place at their home.

Unbeknown to Mr Doran, he had thrown the bag full of toys into a skip along with old furniture and household items, they no longer needed.

The skip had been removed and taken to local waste recycling company Re-Gen Waste, to be processed. When he realised his blunder, Mr Doran immediately called to reception to explain his predicament but was advised that due to the nature of the recycling process, it was highly likely that the toys had been re-processed and baled.

A company alert was sent out, on the off chance that the workers had come across the bag and realised what it contained.

Upon hearing Mr Doran’s plight, Re-Gen’s Plant Manager Gerard Campbell, who happened to be working on a cherry picker at the time, immediately spied the black bag and retrieved it from an open skip, which was next in line to be tipped.

A very relieved Mr Doran received the call he had been praying for, that his bin bag full of toys was recovered unscathed. Thanking the staff at Re-Gen Waste for all their help, Mr. Doran said: “I cannot believe my good fortune, I’m amazed and grateful to be able to bring the kids’ Christmas toys back home, especially since one of the toys was a rare item that would have been hard to replace.

“This really is an early Christmas miracle for our family.”