A Chislehurst family have rallied together to help refugees stranded in makeshift camps in Calais and Dunkirk.

The Saleem family are raising money to buy food for refugee camps where supplies are running out after seeing the plight of camp inhabitants on the news.

Amena Saleem, who lives in Lubbock Road, organises the fundraising and trips with her brother Shahed, and sister-in-law Jane Edge, who is married to her other brother.

Ms Saleem, 46, said: “It was just watching the news and seeing what was happening with people coming from all over, from all those places that have been facing war, climate change, driving people from their homes.

“We saw the conditions, watching it flood in winter and people being wet and hungry and we saw that ordinary people were helping.

“We were so shocked by what we had seen, it’s so close to where we are, we are here in south London, Dover is a few hours away and then a ferry to Calais, these people are so close to us.”

News Shopper: Family fundraises to take food to Calais refugee camp

The family took hundreds of sleeping bags to Dunkirk in February.

This will be the family’s third trip to the camps as they visited Calais and Dunkirk earlier in the year to deliver supplies of tents and sleeping bags.

Ms Saleem told News Shopper about the experience of coming face-to-face with refugees who have experienced harrowing journeys and live in desperate conditions.

She said: “Nothing prepares you for that, the TV gives you an overview but you’re removed from it in that sense.

“Once you’re there and those people have come from so far away you see it and you smell it and you talk to people, people who have walked all the way from Afghanistan.

“You can see and sense the despair, and you see them as human beings.

“They have stories and families, they want to live their lives just like we do, but they can’t, they don’t want something better they just want a chance to live.”

Ms Saleem added: "We saw there was a rusty shipping container and someone had sprayed painted the words ‘you’ll never walk alone’ on it, we saw it and thought volunteers had painted it, but inside there was a little family living in there, a husband and a wife and two small children.”

The family have raised more than £600 via their JustGiving page, but want to collect as much as possible before their trip in November.

All funds raised will be used to buy food for Calais Kitchens who provide thousands of people with one hot meal a day.