A restaurant owner from Falmouth who raised thousands of pounds to help victims of recent devastating earthquakes in Nepal has returned home after a trip to distribute aid.

Ram Sharma, known as Hem, the owner of Balti Curries in Falmouth, travelled to the country with his friend Jason Wilkinson at the very end of May to hand out donations from people and businesses in the town.

The pair took suitcases of medical supplies such as bandages and antiseptic to hand out where needed, as well as thousands of pounds of cash, which they used to buy corrugated tin to provide shelter for quake hit villagers before the rainy season hit the.

On arrival in the village, they met with government officials who assigned them to a village in Dhading province, and they then spent several days travelling to the area, with the last section only accessible by foot.

Jason said: "We walked for hours and hours to get to this remote mountain village.

"This place had been devastated, no other relief had been there, buildings all destroyed or partially destroyed."

When they arrived they set about trying to source building materials for the village, and eventually they were able to source 2,400 large sheets corrugated metal roofing sheets, which were divided between around 125 families in the village, and Jason and Hem estimate that this way they were able top provide shelter for between 500 and 700 people.

Jason said: "It was a great day, handing it out and seeing everybody taking it away."

He described the trip as "a real eye opener", and said the pair had also been to the capital Kathmandu, which was only 50 miles from the quake's epicentre, and had seen communities "destroyed," with noticeboards carrying thousands of names of the missing, as well as travelling through many other towns hearing stories of the disaster.

He said: "In communities Hem and I handed out gifts, a bit of cash, vitamin lollipops donated by the Day Lewis Pharmacy and Boots chemists in Falmouth. We gave out books to kids."

They also visited three schools, and were struck by how lucky it was that the strike happened on a Saturday, when the children weren't in classes.

At one school in Dhading province the whole roof had collapsed and Hem bought materials for a new one.

At another in Chitwan province, he said a building of about 20 classrooms had collapsed, and the children were all out learning in the open in the sun. Here, Hem paid for 84 extra large sheets of metal to create a shelter for the pupils.

Although they have returned, money is still coming in and Hem is hoping to organise more charity events, as well as having put money in from his own pocket, while he and Jason also paid for their own travel arrangements.

Hem thanked people for their kind donations in Falmouth and St Austell, where he runs another restaurant, which along with fundraising at Truro School has seen the total he has raised surpass £20,000.

He said: "I want to say how thankful we are for the kindness of everybody in Cornwall, for their donations.