A family have packed up their lives in one caravan to travel across Europe to help other families in need.

Karen and Warren Binedell, from St Albans, quit their jobs earlier this year to travel across the continent with their three children - Sebastian 15, Aiden 14 and Ella, 12.

The family set off in April this year and have visited Portugal, France, Spain and Belgium so far. They have been involved in volunteer projects in exchange for free meals.

Mr and Mrs Binedell said they decided to embark upon a year-long volunteer voyage after some of their friends lost their homes and lives in wildfires in Portugal.

The family moved from Surrey to Portugal in 2016. But after two years of managing a bar there, they moved back to the UK to live in St Albans as they could not meet the running costs.

The couple said they were willing to give up their jobs as they had been working long hours and barely had time to see their children.

Mrs Binedell, 38, worked as a learning support assistant at a school and Mr Binedell, 46, worked as a fitter for a furniture installations company.

Mrs Binedell said: “Warren and I were killing ourselves to pay the bills by working longer hours and we didn’t see our family.

“After we came back from Portugal there were terrible wildfires and we knew people who lost their homes and lives.

“At the time, we all wanted to go back to help but we couldn’t.

"From then on, we wanted to do something to help and we thought it would be a great lesson for the kids.

“When they were back home, it was so easy for them to get caught up in their own lives and everything revolved around TV and video games.

“We wanted to show them how good it feels when you do something for someone else.

"The people we have helped so far have been so grateful.”

The family have been helping everyday people with work they need done such as farming, replacing a farm house roof and tending to horses and goats.

She added: “We having been getting by on a very small budget and travelling with caravan for the last six months have seen the kids mature so much.”

Mrs Binedell's daughter Ella said: “We’ve had so much fun already. But my favourite has been helping the different families we’ve stayed with and having the opportunity to learn new languages and sampling lots of traditional food.”