A THIRD of the clothes in a ship’s container bound for war-torn Aleppo last Friday were collected at Alton’s George pub after landlady Susannah Stredder put out an appeal at Christmas.

Aware the Syrian refugees were enduring a severe winter and with no warm clothing, Susannah decided to help the charity Don’t Hate Donate.

She put out a call to customers and people in the town to donate any warm clothing they might be able to give and was amazed at the response. Within days the two rooms in the pub’s upstairs flat had been filled with clothes – and more kept coming.

Last Friday, the clothes from the pub were put into vans by willing volunteers and taken to Portsmouth to be loaded with those collected by the organisers of Don’t Hate Donate into a container on a ship bound for Syria.

Susannah has expressed grateful thanks to all those who have supported the effort so far, and especially Adrian James, Nigel Kaye and Steve Murrell, from Bellemoor Removals, for transporting the boxes to the port.

But she told the Herald: “I still have a lot left and have had five car loads arrive over the weekend.”

So she has decided to make her appeal a more united one and has been in touch with charities in Farnham and High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, who are also collecting for Syrian refugees.

In the belief united communities make for a better world, the charities will work together in a bid to raise enough to fill another container for Syria.

On Monday, Susannah also launched her own social medias page on Facebook – called Alton Aid – and hopes this will encourage more people to give clothing.

Her message is clear: “I am still accepting donations here at the pub and it is still very much needed in Syria.”

While the Syrian collection will continue until February 18, the aim after that is to broaden the appeal to support projects helping others around the globe, as well as those in Syria.