SECRET Santa founder Campbell Malone this week revealed how returning to Troon for a sabbatical had helped him deal with the trauma of being caught up in the New Zealand massacre last year.

Teachers Campbell and wife Sandra were working in Lincoln School, Christchurch on March 15 when 51 people were killed and 49 injured just three miles away in mosques.

He said: “I cried a lot after it but can talk about it now. I love being with people. I was with 20 kids in lockdown for four hours when the shootings were happening.

“Our school was a mile and a half away from where the incidents were taking place.

Then when I went back on Monday the flag was put down at half mast and that meant someone else had died. I was crying.

“We went to get our papers on the Saturday morning and the guy in the corner shop wasn’t there.

We learned that he has been shot through the head which was really terrible.

“My woodworks and graphics class had to be barricaded into the classroom. We hid on the floor and the kids lay flat.

“I told them to get their iPads and phones out to contact their parents to check they were okay.

“The kids could see it happening from their phones.

“There was a helicopter above the classroom an the police were carrying guns and when we saw them we knew we would be okay.

“But we couldn’t even go to the toilet and I had to bring a bucket into the classroom to be used.”

“The tragedy broke me and we booked an Air BnB two hours away on the night of the massacre and we walked and talked about everything. It was the most terrifying experience I have had in my life.”

However he has put the trauma of 10 months ago largely behind him.

“The tragedy really broke me and coming back to Troon has been really good for me.”

Meanwhile he looked back on what has been another successful Secret Santa campaign.

The former employee at Ailsa Shipyard in Troon has now been running the venture which sees Santa visiting children and adults across the area, delivering gifts to them, for five years.

He said: “I was on a sabbatical and wanted to do something for the town. Troon Round Table and Troon Rotary Club gave me £100 each and I put in £500.

“It was run in New Zealand for 1,000 kids and thought I should do it for my community.

“I funded it myself and when I got to December 12, I asked peopled if they could help and they got right behind it. That helped keep it going until Christmas Eve and that’s when it got going.

Every year since then I’ve had support and I get a lot out of giving and like to see families coming together.”