As Medway faces the reality of its debt problems, a church charity is marking two years of helping people escape crippling credit card problems.

Shocking figures revealed the extent of Medway’s debt crisis last month – after a major investigation carried out by the Medway Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in partnership with payday lender Wonga.

It was shrouded with controversy and delays, but the statistics finally came in and showed that more people in Medway are taking out high interest loans just to put food on the table than for any other reason.

The survey began in 2012 when, also noticing the growing debt crisis, members of Gillingham Baptist Church and Cornerstone City Church, Rochester, decided they wanted to help.

In 2013 they joined UK debt counselling charity Christians Against Poverty (CAP) to open two Medway branches.

Now the team has helped hundreds of despairing families and individuals by offering a free, face-to-face service, which gives a solution and hope.

Centre manager Ruth Millard said: “As we have seen from the recent survey carried out by Citizens Advice, debt can be so destructive, making people feel really desperate.

“We have been in a lot of homes during these two years and learned about some very sad situations. Some people are scared to go out or even open the curtains.

“Relationships come under a lot of stress and people worry about keeping their home and providing for their families.

“However, we’ve also seen that there is always a solution and the benefit of the way CAP works is that it is really thorough, taking someone step by step to debt freedom.”

CAP’s service is available to everyone regardless of age, faith or background.

To find out more, visit www.capuk.org or call 0800 328 0006.