Dewsbury cafe and estate agents 'overwhelmed' with generous donations for Turkey and Syria earthquake victims

Hunters estate agents and Town Cafe, on Market Place in Dewsbury, have worked together to raise hundreds of donations that have filled a 7.5 tonne truck for the victims of the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday, February 6.

The owner of Town Cafe, Ridvan Turhan, is from Turkey and has friends who have lost loved ones in the quake.

Working with Susan Bell, the branch manager of Hunters, which is found next door, and director of the business, Ashraf Esat, the businesses have collected dozens of bags full of brand new items that are being driven to Turkey this weekend.

The items donated include clothes, nappies, children’s food, sanitary products, hats, gloves and socks among other things.

Susan said: “Although Ridvan’s family were not affected by the earthquake, people he knows in the UK and in Turkey have lost members of their family.

"He wanted to do something to help. It all started with a shoutout on social media.

"When I came into work yesterday, there was one bag outside his cafe. But then donations kept arriving and arriving.

"He took in what he could but his cafe quickly filled up so we said we would take the donations in.

"We expected around 20 bags of stuff, but our office has been completely filled! At one stage, the donations reached the ceiling.

"We have been overwhelmed with donations. The people of Dewsbury have been so incredibly generous and we’ve had people coming from all over to drop items off.

"I want to say thank you to everyone who has donated to the cause.”

The quake is the worst to hit Turkey since 1939, when an earthquake in the east of the country killed around 33,000 people.

The worst affected areas in Turkey are the provinces of Kahramanmaraş, Hatay, Gaziantep and Adıyaman. In Syria, the quakes hit the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo as well as the coastal regions of Latakia and Tartus.