TWO North-East friends have undertaken a road trip with a difference to help victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.

Andrew Pickering and Mark Walker spent yesterday driving 250 miles from Middlesbrough to London to give donations to those who were affected in the disaster.

The duo received more than 200 bags of donations, including clothes, food, toys, shoes, and a pram, which they loaded into a van before heading down to London yesterday morning.

More than 70 people have died and many more are missing after a huge blaze destroyed the 24-storey tower block in west London last Wednesday.

Forty fire engines and more than 200 firefighters went to tackle the blaze, which affected all floors of the building from the second floor up – leaving hundreds of people, who managed to escape, homeless.

Although donations from residents nearby to the Grenfell Tower flooded in following the tragedy, the Middlesbrough duo decided they wanted to do their bit despite living hundreds of miles away.

Speaking to The Northern Echo, Mr Pickering, 46, said the response had been “incredible”.

“My garage was packed, the study was packed, and the back garden was covered with all the bags of donations that we had received - it was amazing.

“It has been fantastic, we have had people come from all over Middlesbrough, but also Stockton, Thornaby and Stokesley - right across Teesside.

“I am overwhelmed with the response and I can't get in my house for everyone’s kindness and thoughtfulness."

Mr Pickering, who regularly volunteers for Hugs for the Homeless in Middlesbrough, said “he couldn’t sit back and do nothing”.

“I had some spare time so I decided to put something on Facebook to let people know what we had planned.

“It was shared by more than 200 people, and right across the Father’s Day weekend I had people turning up with donations.

“We just decided to drive down there – we didn’t know where we were going when we got there, we were just driving.

“But we were not going to give up until we gave all the donations we had brought to the people who needed it the most.

“We want to say thank you to everyone who has donated – it has been a real team effort to help these unfortunate people and we are buzzing."

During their visit to London, the duo left a tribute which read: "Rest in peace all you beautiful people - so sad - respect from the people of Middlesbrough."

“We made a real difference,” said Mr Pickering.

“In the end it was mission accomplished – it was a nice feeling and a fantastic experience,” he added.