A kind-hearted businessman is once again appealing to the people of Weymouth and Portland to help refugees facing -20 degree temperatures this winter.

Christopher Toms has run the appeal for the last several years for shoes and various items to give to refugees and street children close to his home in Greece.

Mr Toms lived in Weymouth for many years and now splits his time between Dorset and Greece, where he runs an animal sanctuary with wife Beatrice and their two daughters.

They also launched a charity, Plataria Refugee and Destitute Child Support.

Last year there was a huge response to the appeal – with parishioners from St Nicholas Church in Broadwey donating 650 pairs of shoes - and Mr Toms is hoping this year people will be just as generous.

Mr Toms said: “We are continuing our work with the street children in Albania who are very poor. Many are barefoot and scavenging on dumps.

“This year there was a very big drought and people were using old wells to find water as the piped water was off alit of the time. Life is very difficult and people are incredibly poor; we witnessed one lady sweeping up mud to give her chickens to eat.

“Many of these villages don't have a church or a mosque due to communism and to be honest it’s a bit like a desolate scene from a movie in the future after a big climatic event. Winter temperatures in these villages go down to -20C.”

The charity is asking for child shoes – new or secondhand if in decent condition – gloves, scarves and new underwear and socks.

Mr Toms added: “The shoe appeal last year yielded 750 pairs of shoes, 500 school books, pens and boxes of gloves, scarves, coats and hats. We would like to make another Christmas appeal as people are always so generous.

“As before it would be great if school teachers would like to use it as an exercise project to teach citizenship, history, geography, social sciences and of course to collect new or secondhand shoes for children.”

Items can be posted to Chris and Beatrice, Sokratus 3, Plataria, Igoumenitsa 46100, Greece.

For more information, search Plataria Refugee and Destitute Child Support on Facebook.