A KIND-hearted university student from Corringham is combining her career ambitions with helping the homeless - with the help of people from her home town.

19-year-old Jessica Jones is a fashion student at Ravensbourne University who found herself so moved by seeing pictures of the homeless as a younger teenager that she started putting together Christmas boxes to distribute locally.

Now she has graduated to putting packages of clothing and other items together and is distributing them to local homeless hostels.

She takes up her story: "I've always done what I can to help the homeless.

Each Christmas, I would make up shoeboxes of food and blankets and take them to different homeless people in and around my area.

"This year I wanted to branch out and help more people, so I reached out to the residents in Stanford and Corringham via social media to see if anyone had anything that they didn't want, and I got tons of stuff.

"I had also received a lot of shoeboxes too, to pack food and supplies in! I made wash clothes, bought toothpaste and toothbrushes for each box and included things like toiletries, biscuits, raisins, something sweet, canned fruit etc...."

Some of the items Jessica includes in the packages she puts together for homeless people include clothes she has made herself.

She told Thurrock Nub News: "As a fashion student I wanted to do something that would allow me to help people and practise my skills for my course!

"I had been making t-shirts and masks just before I started, which really helped me practise for the course, and plus, I had a lot of fun making them!

"During the lockdown I was sitting in my room 24/7 watching Netflix and making the t-shirt. I wasn't feeling my best self, and so I used this as a way to distract myself from that and help people, as seeing other people happy makes me happy.

"This was such a perfect thing for me to do!"

"I have donated some of the bags and boxes I have gathered together and packed to an organisation in Whitechapel called 'Whitechapel mission' and then handed the rest I had with me directly to the three homeless gentlemen I saw.

"I do have around 20 more bags, which I will deliver to a shelter in Basildon at some point next week, and I am still receiving donations too, which I will deliver to the Basildon shelter."