A vicar who delivered aid immediately in the days after the Haiti earthquake has invited people to join him sleeping in a tent on the first anniversary of the disaster.

Rev Paul Hill was in Haiti with his Surbiton-based son Carwyn when the seven scale quake hit the country on January 12, 2010 killing an estimated 300,000 people.

They were among the first to deliver aid to the tent cities that sprang up after the disaster, and their Haiti Hospital Appeal charity set up the country’s first spinal injuries unit.

He will sleep outside the East Sheen Baptist Church on Tuesday, January 11.

Rev Hill said: “Charities such as ours, small and basically unknown, are all working hard and make a huge impact for good.

“A lot of the larger NGOs pulled out when their budgets were exhausted, or are, perhaps holding back for reasons of their own.

“The wider public who responded so well to the international appeal need to be aware that 1.3m people are still homeless in Haiti, and are still having to live in tents, many of them makeshift.”

Carwyn flew back to Haiti in November after the cholera epidemic spread to second city Cap Haitien, and was joined by wife Reninca, a former teacher in Tolworth, in time for Christmas.

The couple bought a live turkey for Christmas dinner, and held a party for spinal patients, after which they sat together and shared some words together.

Writing on his blog, Carwyn said: “Samuel, our most injured patient, movingly spoke of the privilege and daily thanks he has for being alive, when so many died in Haiti died last year.

“All expressed where their families had been lost, we were now family. These weren’t shallow, empty words, which are nice to say in a moment of complements like we so often say.

“There was a deep, deep sense of love within the room and silent understanding that everyone in that room literally did view each other as family. For some, it’s the only family they have.”

Make a donations at haitihospitalappeal.com/donate or send a cheque payable to Haiti Hospital Appeal to Sylvan Way, West Wickham, BR4 9HA.