A church in Weymouth is inviting people to donate shoes and other items to help needy children in Europe.

St Nicholas Church in Broadwey have kickstarted their first challenge of the year and are appealing for donations, which will be distributed to children in Greece and Albania.

Collected items will be distributed through Plataria Refugee and Destititute Child Support, who work to help children living in poverty by delivering fresh food & supplies. 

The church’s vicar, Revd Philip Elliott, decided to hold an appeal after a member of his previous congregation at Holy Trinity Church started the charity. 

Weymouth couple, Christopher and Beatrice Toms, who live in Greece, started the charity having seen the plight of the refugee's and destitute children. They felt they had to do something to help, and started delivering aid donations after the refugees were forced to leave Syria amidst the war.

Judy Parson of St Nicholas Church said: “It was their way of responding to the problems they were seeing.

“This particular appeal is for shoes and items like underwear. They help children in these countries that work in rubbish tips, sometimes they don’t have a proper pair of shoes.

“We are very happy to support it. Last year we managed to collect and deliver 50kg of school supplies and things like teddy bears.

She added: “St Nick’s and St Lawrence School got involved last year and hopefully they will get involved again. 

“It is a good link for the church and the local schools. We have always done the shoe box appeal, but this is specific to the charity which works in Greece and Albania. 

“We aim to hopefully collect the items over the next few months, then we will shop them out to the charity.”

If anyone would like to get involved with the appeal they can contact Judy at stnicksevents@gmail.com to arrange collection or delivery.