TWO VICTIMS of the horrific Grenfell Tower tragedy are heading to Cumnock to promote their recipe book.

Faiza Hayani Bellili and Leila Hedjem were part of a group of women who gathered in a community kitchen in the Al-Manaar mosque after the heartbreaking fire in 2017.

Twice a week they would cook recipes they had grown up eating in the many countries from where they had all come from before living in London.

The horror ordeal of the Grenfell tower claimed 72 lives after a fire broke out in the 24-storey block of flats in North Kensington, West London.

It was the deadliest structural fire in the United Kingdom since the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster and the worst UK residential fire since the Second World War.

After the devastating incident the women wanted to help their community in any way they could after their homes went up up in flames.

The community kitchen provided much needed help and comfort to neighbours and friends who had been affected but they struggled to keep it open.

They wanted to run the facility everyday but funding was short, until The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, stepped in.

She helped out in the kitchen, ate the food and then wrote a foreward to a cookery book called ‘Together’ which was dedicated to all those whose lives were impacted by the fire at Grenfell Tower.

With her support the book shot to the top of the best selling book charts and raised hundreds ofthousands pounds to help keep The Hubb Kitchen going.

Now Faiza and Leila are coming to the Boswell Book Festival on Sunday 12 May to talk about the book, food and their experiences at Grenfell.

The book includes Faiza’s delicious Upside Down Plum Cake which was a major hit at the community kitchen.

Now the community and sur vivors are trying to continue with their lives and creating books like ‘Together’ to help each other through it.

Tickets are available at www.boswellbookfestival.

co.uk Together: Our Community Cookbook (Ebury Press, £9.99)