diff --git a/contrib/src/xrc/xmlres.cpp b/contrib/src/xrc/xmlres.cpp
index 98cb77e1f5..f862795a2d 100644
--- a/contrib/src/xrc/xmlres.cpp
+++ b/contrib/src/xrc/xmlres.cpp
@@ -895,6 +895,8 @@ wxIcon wxXmlResourceHandler::GetIcon(const wxString& param,
 
 wxXmlNode *wxXmlResourceHandler::GetParamNode(const wxString& param)
 {
+    wxCHECK_MSG(m_node, NULL, wxT("You can't access handler data before it was initialized!"));
+
     wxXmlNode *n = m_node->GetChildren();
 
     while (n)
diff --git a/src/xrc/xmlres.cpp b/src/xrc/xmlres.cpp
index 98cb77e1f5..f862795a2d 100644
--- a/src/xrc/xmlres.cpp
+++ b/src/xrc/xmlres.cpp
@@ -895,6 +895,8 @@ wxIcon wxXmlResourceHandler::GetIcon(const wxString& param,
 
 wxXmlNode *wxXmlResourceHandler::GetParamNode(const wxString& param)
 {
+    wxCHECK_MSG(m_node, NULL, wxT("You can't access handler data before it was initialized!"));
+
     wxXmlNode *n = m_node->GetChildren();
 
     while (n)