AN appeal by two Haslemere mums for donations to help the babies and children of fleeing Syrian refugees, clearly touched a chord.

Haslemere’s Gift of Hope charity, which was launched on Facebook less than a month ago by Emily Doyle and Claire Smith, has been supported by well-wishers far and wide.

Their ‘Bag of Hope’ campaign, appealing for winter supplies to fill backpacks they will send out to the youngest victims of the crisis, resulted in public drop-off points being set up from Haslemere to Bordon and Selborne, and drop-off points in private homes from Woking and Guildford to Aldershot and Farnham.

Many Haslemere schools also responded generously to the appeal, donating up to 400 packed bags at a time.

The two friends had requested specific items that could fit into backpacks but the sheer volume of the donations received, many of them gifted as loose items, far exceeded expectations and it was only thanks to Fernhurst removals company George Lambert & Sons, that collecting all the donation together under one roof was made possible.

The removals firm donated a warehouse to a team of volunteers last Friday and Saturday for a massive sorting operation that extended to 16 hours each day.

Emily and Claire had originally hoped they would receive enough packed bags to fill a 20-foot shipping container. In the event, they succeeded in filling a container twice that size to overflowing.

An extra 600 bags it was impossible to find space for in a 40ft shipping container will be flown out to the Greek island of Samos by Sunvil Flights, which has offered to fly the backpacks out to the Red Cross refugee operation there.

Emily told The Herald: “We are both very proud to have achieved this and very grateful to everyone who volunteered their help and gave their time and donations.

“We will organise the shipping either to Athens or to northern Greece, wherever the need is greatest.

“The weather around the Greek Islands is bad at the moment and the land routes have become busier.

“We have been at it non-stop for three weeks and this is a fantastic result.

“My home has been so full of mountains of donations, it took four van loads and eight car loads to take it to the warehouse and we totally took it over for two days.

“Lambert is kindly providing storage for free and hopes to help us get discounts on shipping costs.

“We had 25 people who volunteered to act as drop-off points and to check the bags and drop them off at the warehouse. Many of the volunteers who signed up for two-hour slots on Friday, and Saturday, stayed on for up to six hours at a time.

“Waitrose gave us 120 bags for life and Coomers building supplies in Haslemere gave us 200 bags to put our little bags in.

“We are very relieved the sorting is now done but the job is not finished. We both have children under five and it’s been hard work but we are very proud.”