“The response has been amazing” - Calderdale Lighthouse inundated with offers of help after flooding

Calderdale Lighthouse was set up in September 2018 by Diane Barker, Donna Williams and Emma Poyser Buxton and supply vulnerable and disadvantaged families throughout Calderdale and surrounding areas with essential baby equipment, clothing, shoes, bedding, toys and books.

The flooding from Storm Ciara means they have had to throw away some of their stock and move out of their base in Holmfield into a different unit.

Emma said: “We’re still waiting to see how much of the stock we can save but the mess it’s left isn’t very pleasant, and the smell isn’t very pleasant.

“Some of the clothes up on the shelving will hopefully be able to be salvaged, we will be able to wash them.

“It was a good four or five inches in our main storage room and we have lost our cots and mattresses that were in there.

“On a positive note we have got a new unit - our landlord has been amazing - so it’s a matter of bringing out what we think we can save and get some of the clothing washed.

“The toiletries we have will be fine, but all the boys and men’s shoes we had - eight, nine, 10 big baskets full of shoes - they’ve all gone.

“Some of the prams we’ve been able to salvage, but we will have to throw away our moses baskets.

“You can see on the cot legs where the water got up to.

“We also had some baby bouncing chairs that were stacked up on the floor that will have to go.

“The water wasn’t just coming through the floor, it was coming through the walls from the fields at the back of the unit.”

Emma said the charity has been delighted with the reaction of the Calderdale public to their plight.

“We have faith in the people of Calderdale,” she said.

“The response has been amazing, people have been offering to help with anything we need.

“We’ve had people offering to sort donations, people offering to be donation drop-off points.

“We’ve set up a Local Giving page and people are donating, which is brilliant.

“We’ve had an offer from a joiner to give us some of his time for free.

“Any help or donations are really appreciated so we can get back to work.

“People in Calderdale are amazing, we couldn’t do what we do without them.”

To donate to the charity, visit https://localgiving.org/charity/calderdalelighthouse/project/Floodfund/.