These medicines, donated by kind-hearted UK residents, are being stored in Poole ahead of distribution to mainly rural Zimbabwe.

However, money is needed to ship the haul, worth tens of thousands of pounds, to where it is needed most.

The Rev Alan Clarredge, the Poole minister who organises the annual medicine distribution scheme, said: “We now need urgent donations so we can get these medicines out there. I am appealing for donations, even pennies will help.”

Rev Clarredge, of Rossmore Gospel Church, Rossmore Road, established the Rivers of Living Water charity after working in Africa in the early 1980s.

The minister, who travelled to Zimbabwe in 1982 as a medical technician, also treated the country’s first lady, Sarah Francesca Hayfron – also known as Sally Mugabe – with kidney dialysis.

Mrs Mugabe died of kidney failure in 1992 and the country, under president Robert Mugabe, has been spiralling into economic, political and social crises for years.

Rev Clarredge, who has worked on-and-off in Zimbabwe for years, explained: “As the country went downhill, I discovered more and more need for water purification.

“We collected money for our charity and I went out to rural areas fitting water purification equipment.

“Then the hospitals had started running out of medicines, of virtually everything in fact.

“So I appealed for people who had leftover medicines, in date, to donate them so we could get them to the hospitals.

“This year we’ve got an even larger amount but somehow we’ve got to raise the money to get it shipped out there.”

The minister is hoping to travel back to Zimbabwe in the new year, when he’ll travel into the bush where villagers have little or no medical facilities.

To donate, visit the riversoflivingwater .co.uk website, which is currently under reconstruction but should be working by September.

Otherwise, call Rev Clarredge on            07850 515177      .

By Special correspondent