VOLUNTEERS who have been sending life-saving supplies to poor children in Honduras for 35 years have been thanked personally by the country's ambassador.

Nearly 200 volunteers were at a West Hallam depot on Saturday to meet Ivan Romero-Martinez, the Honduran Ambassador to London, and help fill four huge containers with aid supplies.

Clothes, toys, wheelchairs, food, medical supplies and even bathtubs were among thousands of items loaded into the containers for shipment to the Central American country today.

The aid effort was organised by the Children of Honduras Trust, a charity with its head office in Derby, which has been sending supplies to the county for 35 years.

And Mr Romero-Martinez, who helped load parcels on to the trucks during his visit, said he was touched by the volunteers' efforts.

He said: "I was very humbled and proud to see the hard work and dedication of the volunteers, working together for a brilliant cause.

"My country is very poor and people are suffering all the time.

"What this charity is doing is a favour to Honduras and it warms my heart to see it.

"These supplies will be delivered straight to the poor people of my country and I know they will be so grateful for it."

Mr Romero-Martinez, who was visiting the loading day event for the first time, said he hoped the trust's work would inspire others to do something for charity.

He said: "What the people were doing had a real human side and if everyone had that community spirit, the world would be a better place."

The trust was set up in 1974 after Jennifer Cox, of Spondon, sent a small aid parcel to a friend who was working in the slums of the country's capital, Tegucigalpa.

Since then, the amount of aid being sent to the country has snowballed and this year's shipment, which was loaded at TDG Logistics after being donated by individuals and businesses from across the UK, has been the biggest yet.

The supplies, which will be distributed to more than 8,000 families in the country's poorest regions, include three tonnes of milk powder, four tonnes of oats, rice and flour and two tonnes of pasta.

Medical supplies will also be delivered to a number of hospitals and clinics in the country.

Mrs Cox said she hoped that the work of the volunteers, who were also visited by the Mayor of Erewash, Councillor Barbara Harrison, would save lives in Honduras.

She said: "What thrills me is that in the early days of the charity we were only supplying orphanages, whereas now we are helping the entire country.

"Some of the families over there can only afford to eat one meal a day, and sometimes not even that, so this aid is absolutely essential."