'If these terrible floods had happened to us, we would hope that people would be doing the same for us.'

This is the message from a trio of dedicated people who are devoting their time to providing welfare to the victims of the flooding in the north of the country. Help the Flood Victims UK is a group set up by father-of-two Wayne Bartle, 31, of Hellesdon and friends Robert and Francesca Moser of Sprowston, 33 and 29, who have taken it upon themselves to collect items to help flood victims.

They were moved by media coverage of the disaster and were determined to do something to help.

Mr Bartle, a call centre worker, said: 'When I saw the images of the floods, I thought it was utterly dreadful, so started a Facebook group to see what interest there was in doing something to help, and the response I received was incredible.'

The group has been given the use of a storage container at Big Box Self Storage, on Vulcan Road, near Hellesdon, and in a little over two days the container is already almost entirely full.

They said they had been overwhelmed by donations of clothing, crockery, children's playthings, tinned foods and cleaning products, which they will deliver to Whalley Village Hall, in Lancashire, over the coming weekends.

Mrs Moser, who herself was a flood victim in Great Yarmouth in 2013, said: 'I experienced the devastation of floods first hand; these people may have lost everything, so when Wayne suggested doing something to help I was keen to get on board.'

Help the Flood Victims UK will be collecting for another week, before making a final delivery on the weekend of January 7.

For information on how to donate, contact Mr Bartle on 0845 299 6441.