A former Test Valley Borough Council employee now living in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) rallied her former colleagues to help with the hurricane Irma relief effort.

Hannah Angel worked for the Council for 11 years before packing up to BVI for work as a tourist yacht chef with her yacht captain partner Stuart in 2014.

When the hurricane first struck in late August the couple were back in the UK, but got busy appealing to friends at the council to help with a response effort to help their friends back home.

Their colleagues delivered over 30 bin liners of collected items to ship to BVI.

Hannah said: “I cannot imagine what it must have been like. Seeing people that we care about on the news was very upsetting. We felt so useless being back in the UK and that is why we decided to help by doing a collection.

“Employees at the Council showed amazing generosity and the items will make a huge difference to people lives, including friends of ours, that have lost everything after hurricane Irma.

“People in the islands are slowly starting to rebuild homes and the items that have been kindly donated will certainly help families get back on track. They really will make such a difference to the people that have lost everything.”

The collections of shoes, clothes and toiletries were delivered to the BVI House in London who will arrange an onward shipment.

Leader of the council councillor Phil North said: “This is typical of the kindness and generosity of the council staff. Whether it is a cake sale for Macmillan coffee morning, volunteering for local organisations or a spur of the moment collection like this, they always rise to the occasion.”

Hannah hopes to be back in the BVI within the next 6 months and will help the community continue to rebuild.

To donate visit virgin.com/unite/bvi-community-support-appeal