Breakfast charity flooded twice in two days

Volunteers leapt into action after the Pilgrim Centre flooded twice over the weekend

A charity providing daily breakfasts to people in need was hit by flooding twice over the weekend due to heavy rain.

Volunteers at Big Breakfast Plus, which runs every day out of Swindon's Pilgrim Centre, spent hours cleaning up flood water over the weekend.

A call was put out for sandbags, water vacuums and dehumidifiers after the centre saw several inches of flood water run in both days.

But service coordinator Wayne Twitchell described himself as the "luckiest guy in Swindon" after seeing the response of volunteers.

Wayne Twitchell and Larnie Perrett were both at the centre cleaning up over the weekend

The team were preparing to open the doors to guests at around 07:30 BST on Saturday when flood water began to pour in through the back door, quickly covering the centre.

Volunteers were forced to keep the doors closed and spent the next several hours cleaning up the damage, with some guests also pitching in to help.

"It shocked me when I stood in it and it was already over my trainers - I was like 'ok this is serious','" said Mr Twitchell.

The water covered a large area "all the way through the café from the front door to the back door" he added, saying everything was "soaked".

Volunteer Larnie Perrett said: "It was quite a lot of water, I didn't think it was going to get cleared up.

"It just kept coming in and in for a while, but it was nice to see everyone joining together and cleaning it up."

The team were "very lucky" that there was no sewage in the flood, Mr Twitchell said, adding that there was no warning before the water poured in.

The charity has put out a call for supplies to help deal with flooding aftermath

He explained that putting precautions in place like sandbags could be difficult as they would be next to a fire escape, but the team had lifted all perishable items and anything that could be damaged off of the floor.

Mr Twitchell told BBC Radio Wiltshire that the response of volunteers had been "amazing".

When the centre flooded again on Sunday he put an SOS message in the volunteer Whatsapp group urging people to help if they could, and was even beaten to the venue by volunteers who had responded instantly.

While he couldn't explain why the Pilgrim Centre had been so badly affected by the heavy rainfall, he did say the group were "worried" by further rain to come.