• CAN you imagine what it is like to leave your family in a country where you are being persecuted, making your way to Britain using illegal smugglers who only care about profit, being dumped on a beach, and put in a detention centre?

After that you may be moved many times from one camp to another without warning and after three years you are told you can apply for permission to stay here. Meanwhile you have little contact with your family back home and you have no friends.

I have been matched with an Iranian gentleman, who has had a journey like this, through the charity HostNation as a friend, and this week we met for the first time.

He was cheerful, spoke excellent English, which he had taught himself. I had a lovely few hours with him walking around Covent Garden listening and talking about the things we were enjoying together.

Do look at the HostNation website to see if this is something you would like to do. Just bring a little smile and joy into someone’s life.

My new friend and I love to swim so that’s what we might do together next week or maybe visit one of our museums together. It really doesn’t matter what we do as long as we build a friendship.

I had to live in a remote part of China some years back, because of my husband’s job, and I can promise you that was a testing time when you don’t know the language and you don’t know anyone.

I had a way out, but our refugee friends don’t and I can open my heart to one person to hope it makes a difference to their life. You can too! So we will swim together next week. www.hostnation.org.uk

LINDA GROVE, NW3