A student who moved to London to study was inspired to hand out Christmas hampers to Harrow homeless people after being shocked at the numbers sleeping rough in the capital.

Melvin Moyo, 23, from Bradford, moved to Wembley in September to study commercial music at Westminster University.

On his first day in London he spoke to a homeless man at Euston Station who told him he had lost his home after his wife died and had struggled with alcoholism since. Mr Moyo says he was inspired to bring a sense of Christmas spirit to people sleeping on the street this December.

The student, who lives in university accommodation in Wembley Park, says he also hopes to make people aware of the ways in which people find themselves homeless.

He added: “When I spoke to the man outside Euston Station I realised that many unfair things can happen to cause people to end up on the street that are often out of their control.

“After talking to this man I moved on and found two other people sleeping rough within a few yards so I bought them all MacDonalds. But I decided I wanted to do more to help.”

Mr Moyo contacted Nicole Ruddock, a manager for card company Hallmark, who has been running her own project helping homeless people, from Melvin’s church in Leeds.

He asked her how he could do something similar around Harrow. Ms Ruddock was able to get the creative team at Hallmark to donate some Christmas cards.

She also sent a collection of church books to hand out and some money to buy food for hampers.

On Tuesday, December 8, Mr Moyo and four other volunteers took to the streets around Harrow-on-the-Hill station to give out the hampers.

He says he has been given great support from other students and course leaders at university. Tesco have also helped the project by giving the volunteers a discount on food to go in the hampers.

Mr Moyo says recipients have been more pleased and surprised by the Christmas cards which are signed from Melvin, Nicole and Bridge Street Pentecostal, Melvin’s church in Leeds.

Upon leaving Harrow on Tuesday he met a man named Chris outside the station who, along with his wife, had been made homeless that day.

“It was an eye-opening experience. I gave him some food and a Christmas card which he really needed considering he was stressed and all over the place.

“He said he had prayed for help and he was so grateful.”

The gospel music fan has also used his musical talents to compose a song called ‘Say It’, a cover of a song by artist Tory Lanez. He has re-written the lyrics to spread a message of happiness despite a lack of wealth in support of his project.

Next year, Mr Moyo hopes to help more people by handing out more donations across the capital.