A VOLUNTEER who saw first hand the harrowing situation of desperate migrants at Calais shared his experience with people in Windsor last week.

Richard Smith, 44, spoke to a crowd at the United Reformed Church in William Street, on Thursday (February 4) at 2pm. His visit was arranged by his mother Joy Smith - a member of the University of the Third Age - who lives at Windsor's Riverside Park.

Mr Smith, who is a church organist and director of music, went with his partner Lizzy to join members of the organisation Care4Calais which is distributing second hand boots to the people stranded in the squalid camp at Calais.

He said: "As a man my main job turned out to be crowd control. People were desperate and order had to be kept.

"I spent most of my time being buffeted. Three days in, a kid aged about 12 spent half an hour hitting me in the back while crying his eyes out as the boots were distributed.

"He was desperate and needed some boots badly. But he needed a token because of the system that had been worked out and he did not have one. He was not able to have any boots - we had to stick to the system that had been organised."

He still thinks about the desperate boy and said: "It was heartbreaking - a real killer."

To make it worse, someone trying to return a pair of boots that did not fit one day led to angry accusations of queue jumping from the exhausted and desperate migrants. It forced the distribution of boots to stop for the day.

The volunteers had to reluctantly close up the van as the growing tension started to put lives at risk.

Mr Smith, who lives in Wokingham, is back home now. But he has set himself the task of raising £10,000 by the end of February to help the refugees.

You can find out more by visiting www.bootswithoutborders.org.uk