Two Stevenage women who launched a campaign to collect sanitary products for homeless women have been surprised by the lack of interest from charities in the area.

Friends Sanya Masood and Sophie Harrold leapt into action when they heard about a campaign called The Homeless Period.

The cause asks people to sign a petition to get the government to give homeless shelters an allowance to buy sanitary products.

Sanya and Sophie, both 24, wanted to do more and started a Facebook page asking for donations of sanitary towels and tampons to give to homeless shelters.

Sanya, of Turner Close, said: “We became passionate about the lack of state provision of sanitary products for homeless women and decided to organise a collection.

“We had the initial aim of collecting 50 boxes of tampons and sanitary towels, but we were getting people from all over the country donating and have now got about 100 boxes.

St Francis’ College in Letchworth, where we were both students, donated about 50 boxes.

“We got in touch with quite a few shelters, but there wasn’t much interest in Stevenage and the surrounding area because we were told most of the homeless are men.

“After that we started asking further afield, and the only response we got back was a shelter in Liverpool.

“We were surprised by the lack of interest because we thought it was quite a big issue.”

The women are set to take the donations to The Whitechapel Centre in Liverpool on August 4, where they will be given to women in need.

Visit Facebook page ‘A Bloody Good Cause’ to back the campaign.