Former Mr Universe contender Mohammad Khokhar started helping people when he was just 12 years old.

He was living in Pakistan in the period of bloodshed and upheaval which followed the Indian subcontinent being partitioned into India and Pakistan during the late 1940s.

"After people started killing each other I, with my mother, used to pick up wounded people and bring them to the hospital," he says. "And in 1947 I set up a camp for refugees in Lahore at a wheat flour mill which my parents were running."

He was also Pakistan's representative in the 1956 Mr Universe contest in London after establishing his own health and fitness club in Lahore. After moving to Britain, Mr Khokhar became involved with the Pakistan Welfare Association of Croydon, set up in 1965 to help new arrivals.

In 1982 he was instrumental in setting up Croydon's Ethnic Minorities Advice Bureau, in London Road, Norbury, which helps people of all ethnic backgrounds.

The charity, staffed by volunteers, offers advice on education, racial harassment, housing and welfare. It also refers people to agencies which deal with health and immigration issues. Mediation in neighbourhood disputes is another of its services.

Mr Khokhar, 71, of Thornton Heath, has not kept a tally of how many people have come through his door asking for advice. He believes it does not matter whether an individual is able to help one person or thousands as long as they try to make a difference.

"Community work is my mission in life. I love helping I am there to assist," the dad-of-two adds. "I am a Muslim. The duty of a Muslim is to help and assist other people it is not taking lives and hurting others."