A Slough based charity offering help to victims of abuse received a visit from top politician Priti Patel on Monday.

A veteran Conservative Government minister, Miss Patel was Government Secretary of State for International Development before parliament was dissolved for the General Election.

She was welcomed to the Chalvey Pavilion Community Centre on the Green at Chalvey, where she met Rani Bilkhu - the woman who runs the Jeena charity.

Jeena works on a one to one basis with women and men from 'minority' black, Asian and refugee societies who are facing abuse - providing referral to support services where necessary and mentoring programmes that are followed through.

Miss Patel asked Ms Bilkhu whether ethic minorities were becoming more open now when it came to asking for advice and support.

She replied that this was happening but warned: "Some people who are victims still do not see themselves as victims. We are talking about minorities within minorities."

She emphasised that men often needed help too if they were being abused.

She told Miss Patel that the railway bridges between Slough and Paddington were often known as 'suicide bridges' because so many people had nowhere to turn.

Ms Bilkhu visits schools, groups and companies advising people on integration into the community.

She believes in being proactive, saying: "There was a time when many people did not know forced marriages existed. But unless we go out and ask in depth questions we aren't going to know."

Trustees of the charity also met Miss Patel.

One of them is Sunita Jethami who made it clear that the charity was there to help everybody who came to it.

She said: "We are committed to social inclusion. We are secular and do not affiliate to to anything but people. We are committed to an abuse free future."

Miss Patel was accompanied by Slough's prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate Mark Vivis, who also took part in an in depth discussion with the trustees.