TRADERS in Minehead responded this week to an appeal through the Free Press to help five young Kosovan refugees stranded in West Somerset.

Charity worker Hilary Murley arranged for the five to go on a shopping spree in the town for free shoes and clothing after reading of their plight.

The five Kosovans had escaped their war-ravaged homeland and fled to England, where police found them hiding in the back of a lorry near Bridgwater.

They were then taken in by Fiddington farmer Michael Evans and his wife Jenny, who run a camping and caravan site.

Mrs Murley, who helped to found a charity providing aid to impoverished people in Romania, said: "I just thought I had to do something for them.

"These youngsters had lost their entire families, their homes, and their country. They had nothing but the clothes they stood in.

"I dread to think what effect this is going to have on them. What their future is, we do not know.

"They are all grieving in some way and they are here in a very different culture to the one they are used to. It is very lonely for them."

Mrs Murley read about the group in last week's Free Press and contacted traders in Minehead who had previously given items for her charity RoSEP to take to Romania.

She said: "They could have told me to get lost because I am always asking for RoSEP, but they did not, they were brilliant.

"They really brightened up these youngsters' lives for the day."

Shoes were provided by The Shoe Centre and clothes by the Warehouse Shop and Exsports, while Butlins family entertainment resort allowed the youngsters access to the holiday centre's facilities.