A Polish woman living in Halstead has joined others across the country trying to put a stop to the discrimination Polish people face in the UK.

Organised by UK-based newspaper the Polish Express and the British Poles Initiative, more than 1,000 Polish people gave blood last Thursday rather than going into work.

Joanna Madziar, 27, and her partner Jakub Dukielski, 27, left Poland for Halstead four years ago.

Mother-of-one Miss Madziar, of Colne Road, Halstead, works part time as an assistant manager of new product development at dried ingredient production company RM Curtis, in the Bluebridge Industrial Estate, Halstead.

She said: “We wanted to show the importance of Polish workers in the UK.

“There is always a lot of bad news about Polish people in the UK press and we wanted to show people that it is not bad that we are here.

“We didn’t organise the strike, but we both took part.

“Polish people are hard working and are important to the UK economy.

“My partner and I wanted to move to England from when we were 18.

“There are much better opportunities for young people in England compared to Poland and the wages are higher.”