THOUSANDS of items donated by generous residents will be taken to refugees in Calais tomorrow.

The Refugee Action Colchester group has been collecting items for five weeks from a number of drop-off points across the town, including Brightlingsea, Layer de la Haye and Wivenhoe.

A group of 14 volunteers will leave at 4.30am tomorrow, driving four vans full of donations to the camp.

This includes 400 individually packed wash bags, 300 sleeping bags and bed rolls, 40 camp beds, 90 tends and bags of food supplies.

They will give some of the items to the main donations warehouse and hand other bits out themselves to those most in need.

Volunteer Maria Wilby said: “What’s been amazing is it hasn’t felt difficult because there has been such a remarkable response from every type of person you can imagine.

“People have been giving time, money, and doing whatever they can.

“It’s great to see the cultivation of five weeks of hard graft.”

Some of the volunteers are hoping to return in the coming weeks, and the group are planning to take other donations to Malta and Kos.