A GOOD Samaritan has collected dozens of items of clothing to help homeless people.

University lecturer Maggie McDowell has organised a collection of clothes and bedding to keep homeless people across the North-East warm at Christmas for the past three years.

For the last three weeks, Ms McDowell, who works at the School of Applied Social Sciences at Durham University, has been collecting donations of clothes, shoes and bedding which are then distributed among local homeless people by charity Changing Lives to help protect them from the winter cold.

This year she intends to go even further; organising a tandem skydive alongside her friend Laura Burdon, a complaint handler from Hewlett Packard in Peterlee, to raise over £1,000 for a homeless charity called ‘Changing Lives’.

She said: “I got involved with Changing Lives through my work at the university and was moved by the care and compassion they gave to their service users.

“We want to raise knowledge, support and awareness for homeless people within the region.

“Last year we collected £340, which we spent on toiletries for the charity. This year we hope to hit the £500 mark.”