A MOTHER has returned from a refuge in France after delivering sacks of toys and goodies to war-torn children and their mothers.

Julie Siddiqi, 46, was part of a team of 10 women who travelled to the Dunkirk Refugee Women’s Centre last week to meet refugees who had fled their countries.

Mrs Siddiqi, a mother of four of Long Readings Lane, Slough, helped deliver hundreds of pounds worth of gifts donated via an Amazon wish list, which is similar to a wedding list online. This included toys, colouring in books, women’s toiletries and even sleeping bags.

Additionally Mrs Siddiqi took along droves of teddies for the refugee children which had been hand-knitted by Slough’s Knit Your Socks Off Group. The group regularly knits items for patients at Wexham Park Hospital, including socks for cancer patients, and was founded by Samina Hussain as she fought breast cancer in 2014 which she survived. Mrs Siddiqi said: “A couple of women who donated those teddies recognised them in the photos we took so it was very personal for them.

“The teddies went down very well with the children because they were home-made and you could see they were so happy. Knowing they would go to bed with a teddy that night was a very nice thing for me.”

The refuge is run solely by volunteers and is housing the women and children who have fled their respective countries, including Iraq, and managed to make it as far as France. However, Mrs Siddiqi said many of them were now in limbo because they had nowhere else to go, with little money and few possessions.

Two of the leaders of the group had been to the refuge before and knew some of the volunteers at the centre, Mrs Siddiqi said. This is how it was arranged. The women travelled in five cars between them and went to Calais via the Eurostar.

Mrs Siddiqi said the 10 were a mix of Jewish, Muslim and Christian women.