WIRRAL has been rallying to a call to help Syrian refugees by donating essential items for survival.

Tragic images in the news spurred the owner and staff at The Marsh Cat restaurant in Parkgate to appeal to the public to help refugees who fled their homes.

The result was a weekend which saw thousands of items – from toothbrushes and nappies to warm clothing and pop-up tents – being dropped off at the restaurant.

A further appeal for volunteer drivers to transport the goods to a holding point in Bromborough also resulted in a massive response from the local community.

The initiative began after restaurant owner Ben Russell was moved by the plight of the refugees.

He said: “Everybody says ‘We should do something’ s we did – and the result was absolutely staggering.

“Once word got out that we would be accepting goods, there was hardly a minute over the weekend when people weren’t dropping items off here.

“Donations were coming from all over Wirral – the generosity of people has been unbelievable.”

Such was the volume of donations the restaurant found itself unable to fit everything in at its premises.

It is being stored at a site in Bromboroug until it can be shipped out to Greece by charity Kos Kindess.

Ben added: “Then we obviously needed drivers to transport everything from Parkgate to Bromborough.

“Again, the response was phenomenal and within a short time we had a huge team of volunteer drivers helping out.

“All this started with a conversation with the charity.

“Initially, we just asked people to search through their homes to see if they had any unwanted items to donate.

“However, many people had obviously gone out shopping to buy new goods which arrived at the Marsh Cat as well as at our Bromborough sites in amounts that I can only describe as mountains.

“We are all overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity which proves that we can make a difference by doing our bit to help this tragic situation.”