FITZHEAD villager Alison Kent was amazed when she asked neighbours if anyone had unwanted winter coats for a Syrian refugee charity – and ended up with a front porch overflowing with donations.

Over 130 warm coats were found in under two weeks in the small village, and now will be sent off with hundreds of others by an organisation called Country Coats 2 Syria.

“I was overwhelmed by the response, it was amazing. People were so generous – I even heard of one person going to a charity shop to buy some, because she didn’t have any herself,” said Alison.

She was inspired to drum up support when she read a small item about the collection group. She delivered flyers and emailed groups in the village, but was stunned to end up with 134 coats piled up in her porch.

They will now be passed on by the group, to be sent out in shipping containers by established charity Syria Relief, to the almost ten million refugees in camps both in Syria and neighbouring countries.

“The nights there can be freezing, and there is cold, miserable rain – living in a tent must be awful. It was ideal that a number of coats were for children too,” said Alison.