Third Calais visit for Preston group

Members of the Preston Faith Forum, alongside the Light Foundation, will head to the city later this month with donations, to show “solidarity with their plight”.

The team is now calling for donations including waterproof boots, tents and sleeping bags.

Jeremy Dable, part of the group heading to France on February 19, said: “Whatever’s going on in the rest of the world, we want Preston to be a beacon of tolerance.

“We want to understand and recognise we are a single community with different identities.

“When we saw the boy on the beach we said, ‘This is really bad. There are refugees coming to Europe, we’ve got to show a bit of fellow feeling’.

“And we thought what was doable by us was to go to the Jungle in Calais and show some fellow feeling.

“Not from one religion, but from representatives of all the religions in Preston, so they would know whatever divided them where they came from, we don’t have them here.”

Jeremy said previous visits in September and November showed unity and “made us closer as human beings.”

He said: “We wanted to do some charitable work and show some solidarity with their plight.”

Supplies needed include tents in good conditions, sleeping bags, toiletries, gloves, hats and scarves, blankets, waterproof coats in sizes small and medium, new men’s underwear in smaller sizes, non-perishable food, excluding pork and pasta, and waterproof trainers and boots especially in sizes seven, eight and nine.

Donations can be dropped off at the Central Methodist Church and other centres, and the team will accept donations via Paypal by contacting [email protected].