AS you sit down for your Christmas dinner this year, spare a thought for Mary and Kevin Maguire.

The caring couple will be thousands of miles from their loved ones, caring for orphans in Africa.

But they do not feel dismayed at the prospect of missing a family Christmas in Ainsworth.

“We will be spending it with our African family here, in Kenya,” Mary said.

The 46-year-old charity worker first visited Kenya with her husband to celebrate his 40th birthday, in February, 2000.

As part of the trip, they asked their tour representative to take them to a local school.

“It was a very humbling experience,” Mary said.

“Even though the children had nothing according to our Western standards, they were so happy.”

In 2004, Mary and Kevin returned to Kenya and visited the school again, only to find the walls falling down and nursery children sitting on mud floors, without chairs or desks.

That is when the fundraising and charity work began.

In May, 2005, the Maguires laid the foundations for a new two-storey school in Shanzu Village.

Building began in September of that year and, in just four weeks, the building was ready.

In October, 2006, Mary and Kevin went back to Kenya to follow their dream of building an orphanage. They bought a two-acre plot of land in Mtwapa — north of Mombasa — for an orphanage for 40 children.

Mary and Kevin now spend half the year in Ainsworth and half the year in Kenya.

“I have realised I don’t need a posh car and all the things we take for granted. There is so much more to life,” said Mary.

Mary and Kevin’s enthusiasm is infectious. Many of their friends and family, some from Bolton, have flown out to Kenya to help with the project — everyone paying for their own air fares, accommodation and daily living expenses.

“Every penny we raise goes into the project,” said Mary.

The couple sold their Bolton building business and embarked on their charity work without a backwards glance.

They have an enthusiastic band of charity fundraisers here in England and in Northern Ireland — where the Maguires were born.

Their orphanage — named The Good Life Orphanage — is run as small houses, each with a house mother who looks after children ranging in age from new-born to just six years.

Eventually, the Maguires hope to set up an orphan village, complete with farmland to grow their own food.

There are many needy children in Kenya. Little Kay arrived aged just just days old and six-year-old Rami was taken in by the orphanage when his mother died giving birth to his brother. His father is dead.

Ali, aged four, and his 15-month old brother, Frankie, became homeless when their mother walked out, never to return.

Many of the children have lost their parents to Aids.

Mary and Kevin will be in Kenya for Christmas. There won’t be any decorations, Christmas cake or pudding, but everyone will tuck into chicken and rice and celebrate the special day.

Their 25-year-old son, Kevin, and 23-year-old twin daughters, Sinead and Claire, will be in England for Christmas, along with the Maguires’ new granddaughter, Niamh.

“I will miss the family terribly, but I have another family here and people here who need me. That’s how it feels to me,” said Mary.

Kevin, a joiner by trade and Mary, who worked for the family firm in an administrative role, are determined to make a difference in Kenya.

“We want to help the children. Children and families in the Western world have so much it’s hard to imagine just how little the African children have and just how different their lives are. We know we are doing the right thing, helping them,” she said.