An organisation has come together to host lunches for older people who are often overlooked in society.

North Kent Caribbean Network (NKCN), founded by Claudette Bramble and daughter Michelle, host a lunch club every week for the elderly at Old Gravesendians Rugby Football Club in Gravesend.

They run activities and talk about their lived experiences coming to the UK.

Each person pays £4 to come along, which includes some food.

The idea stemmed from a writing club formed in 2015 by NKCN.

Six women wrote about their experiences coming to the UK which were then published in a book called From the Caribbean to Kent: Our Story.

One of the authors, Ursula Sullivan, who is known as Sully, attends the lunches.

When she came to England from Trinidad in 1954, her arrival was not well received.

She said: “When I came here, I was shocked because we knew so much about Britain, but in Britain they didn’t know anything about us."

Sully started as a midwife for the NHS and worked her way up to the role of head nurse at the antenatal clinic at the old Gravesend and North Kent Hospital.

She was passionate about caring for her patients and bringing life into the world but sometimes patients did not want her to touch them due to the colour of her skin.

She said: “Lots has changed since then but a lot still needs to be changed."

Another member is Nadya Caseae, who moved to Gravesend in 2019.

The 69-year-old said: "I wanted to meet some other Caribbean people in Gravesend.

"We play bingo, we chat, we talk about history and our story of being in the UK."

North Kent Caribbean Network has a rich history behind it.

Claudette Bramble was Kent's first female magistrate and recently received an award from Gravesham council for dedicating 40 years of voluntary service to the local community.

She formed the Gravesend West Indian Association in 1982 because she wasn't happy with some actions by the police at the time.

She said: “Police were stopping every black child they saw and they even went into my parents' house to arrest my brother.

“They claimed they saw him in a garage trying to steal and he was only 13 years old.”

She has also conducted workshops and talks to raise racial awareness by teaching the police how to read different body language and not make assumptions.

Claudette also joined the anti-apartheid movement among other campaigns.

She said: “We came here to make a difference because remember, we didn’t just come to the UK, we were invited to come.”

In the past they have worked with projects such as Cohesion Plus– which runs multi-cultural events across the county – to organise Steven Lawrence Day, Windrush Day, Commonwealth Day and Black History Month.