A Chinese woman living in Helston claims racism is prevalent in the town but "no one talks about it."

Lijia Ashcroft, known to her friends as Rachel, lives in Helston with her British husband and their young daughter and claims she and her friends have been the victim of racial verbal abuse on more than one occasion.

She wants people to be more aware that it is happening and to challenge it.

The most recent occasion was in one of Helston's supermarkets, when she was waiting to pay and a woman behind her began claiming she had jumped the queue.

The woman went on to push her before calling her "Chinese crap."

Rachel said: "I felt somebody pushing me from behind. I thought she didn't mean to, but I looked at her and she looked quite aggressive. She was still pushing.

"Then she started putting her shopping on the belt, almost taking my stuff off. I said to her, 'Excuse me, I'm here first.'

"She said 'What?' straight in my face. I said, 'I'm here and what are you trying to do?'"

Rachel said the woman then tried to claim she had jumped the queue, and when Rachel disagreed the woman replied: "Shut up Chinese crap."

After paying for her shopping Rachel went to the manager, who she claimed then spoke to the woman and told her not to visit the store again.

This was not an isolated incident, however, as on another occasion at the store she had accidentally taken her shopping basket through the till area and overheard another customer telling someone: "Look, she's trying to steal it."

"I know other non-British here in Helston that are bullied, but they don't talk about it," Rachel added, saying one of her friends, who has lived in the town for five or six years with her husband who is in the navy, was asked in the street: "Why are you here? You should be in London."

She said that another friend who works in one of the town's takeaway restaurant had been asked by one of the customers: "Is this dog meat? Do you sell dog meat?"

"I asked her what was her response, but she said, 'What can you do?' That's sad, because it's encouraging these people to bully you," said Rachel.

"I have a black friend and they get bullied, but nobody says it because they don't talk about it. I think people need know there are people like that around us."