Santa's braving the pain barrier this Christmas

Retired baked Roger (68) has played Father Christmas for 15 years during Rotherham Sitwell Rotary Club’s festive float collections.

And he loves the job so much that he has decided to put up with the agony after injuring himself when he fell over a low wall after wishing a girl Merry Christmas in Kimberworth.

The committed Santa Claus said: “I can put up with the pain. It would have hurt so much more not to be doing it.

“I’m taking tablets and just trying to keep my arms still by my side. There’s no way it was going to stop me. No way.

“We were on the Manor estate and I got off the float, which I’m noted for doing, to say hello to a little girl but went down the wrong drive.

“I went over onto both my arms and heard the crunch. I was thinking it would be okay, so I carried on for another hour but things got worse.

“The hospital X-rayed and told me it was fractured. The next day I went to the clinic, where they said I had a 4 mm crack all the way around and had chipped a bit of bone off the top.”

Roger, who lives at Doles Lane, Whiston, with wife Tina (63), takes his role seriously—even importing his costume from the US.

He helped set up the Rotary’s collection, which took £1,000 last week and is done in collaboration with the Round Table and Continuity groups for the second week.

He said: “I remember watching the Santa float when I lived on the Duke of Norfolk estate and it used to make my head tingle.

“Doing this role still makes my head tingle like it always did. It’s always a magical experience, the pleasure that you bring the kids. "

Roger’s lifeguard son Oliver (28) was flown home after breaking his collarbone snowboarding in Canada—just days apart from his dad’s mishap.

Roger said: “We were sat together at the fracture clinic on Tuesday and they saw us together.

“I’m carrying on until Christmas Eve. They’ve said I might be okay if I wear the sling, but you can’t be a proper Santa wearing that thing.”

Catch the final few days of the charity float at Whiston tonight, Broom’s Grange estate tomorrow and the Duke of Norfolk estate on Christmas Eve.