Poet Lemn Sissay has given special praise to the Richmond volunteers behind the annual Christmas Day dinner for young people who have left care.

The campaigner, who was raised in care and foster homes himself, set up a small project in Manchester in 2013 to make sure that no care leaver is alone on Christmas Day.

This effort now inspires and helps groups across the country to run annual events with hundreds of young people supported at a time of year where friends and family come together.

The Richmond Christmas Day Dinners group is fundraising for year's event and brings together people from across the borough as well as Kingston and Hounslow.

You can find out how to make a donation, volunteer or buy a present via this link – https://christmasdayrichmond.com/

The praise for their work emerged in a moving TV interview with actress Sally Phillips, who lives in Richmond borough and has her own links to the Skylarks charity, on BBC One yesterday – Sunday.

She said: "Lemn's Christmas dinner project has grown from its humble beginnings in Manchester to become a nationwide annual event from Liverpool to Richmond-upon-Thames.

"Lemn and his team are on a mission to ensure no care leaver is ever left alone on Christmas Day.'

Speaking on the programme, Lemn said the whole Christmas period can be triggering for young people raised in care. But, he said: "The moment people walk through that door we are there to make them feel good.

"We are teaching the community about the needs of the care leaver on Christmas Day and the community responds with such grace and kindness.

"Everything is donated … People want the excuse to do the right thing."

He added: "All of the young people get picked up in a taxi, so there is transport and there are presents. They all have to get great presents.

"Last year, Richmond gave every young person who came to the Christmas Dinner an iPhone, the latest iPhone. I mean that is a lot, that is a lot for us."

He added: "The idea that it is only for blood relatives just doesn't work. Christmas is about people who are not your blood relatives, but then treating them as family."

Sian Thomas, who chairs the organising group in Richmond borough, was inspired to take action after coming across a teen begging outside Burger King in Twickenham, in 2016.

She said: "I have worked with care leavers throughout my career and seen numerous young people spend Christmas on their own and it really haunted me. I just thought, if the community knew about this and knew what a care leaver was, they would want to help."

In September 2017, she said: "I plucked up the courage and thought if we can't do it in Richmond, where can we do it? We have all these amazing people and affluence, and we just need to let people know."

Emily, who was one of the first to attend one of the early events with her brother, said: "It was really lovely. There was a family feel to it. And it was quite emotional actually.

"We all had different stories and different backgrounds, and different reasons we were there, but we all came together. I've never been to anything like that before and it was just really special."

The annual event is supported by the charity Cocoon - Care After Care, which is involved in the fundraising and provides support for youngsters raised in care.

* See the programme with Lemn Sissay and Sally Phillips here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001g56p/my-life-at-christmas-with-sally-phillips-series-1-2-lemn-sissay