During autumn last year something advertised on Facebook caught my eye. It was the poster above. What a great idea to put Christ’s love and compassion into action. I shared the poster on my FB page and with Deacon Tracey Hume at Trinity Methodist Church Blaydon and The Ark.  Tracey used the Blaydon and Winlaton Community FB page to advertise the project and I advertised it at Ryton Methodist Church too.

The cause really seemed to capture people’s hearts and imaginations and the response was overwhelming.  I lost count in the end as to how many I collected from Blaydon, Ryton and friends. I would guess at least 200. There were bags everywhere at one point – piled high in my porch, hallway, understairs cupboard, the dining room table. People were so kind and generous. It was a great way of enabling the community to get involved and help others.

This is a message from Gill Minto, the organiser of the project. "Thank you very much to everyone who supported the project by donating bags, contents, transporting and storing bags. There are too many people, businesses and organisations to thank individually. We have had an amazing response. The bags are being given to charities, homeless outreach projects, refuges and foodbanks that support homeless and vulnerable women in the North East." 

Gill had an anticipated target of 1000 bags. The total far exceeded this and almost 2500 bags were collected with 11 extra bin bags full of sanitary products.

Her next project is to concentrate on providing period packs. To find out more you can email the address on the poster or check out ‘Helping Homeless Women – North East’ on Facebook.

Judith Stoddart, Student Deacon