Parishioners are preparing to walk the route of the Piccadilly line from Heathrow to central London this weekend to raise awareness of modern day slavery.
About 40 people from St Paul's Church, in Hounslow West, and other churches across the borough are set to walk 20 miles from Heathrow Terminal 4 to Piccadilly Circus between Friday (October 3) and Sunday.
As well as highlighting the plight of exploited captives, from domestic servants to sex workers, they will be raising money for Hope for Justice, which rescues victims of human trafficking and helps them rebuild their lives.
The walk is the brainchild of Anita Potter, who is the leader of Act for Justice in Hounslow, the charity's local support group, and worships at St Paul's Church, in Bath Road, Hounslow West.
She was spurred into action after hearing earlier this year how police had rescued a woman allegedly forced into prostitution at a home in the same road as her local church.
"The house was just a couple of hundreds of yards from the church on a main road with everyone walking past and yet no one knew what was going on. It makes you realise modern day slavery is everywhere, right under our noses," she said.
"The walk goes from Heathrow, where a lot of trafficked people arrive in the country, through deprived areas where they are working in brothels, areas of enormous wealth like Knightsbridge, where you have domestic servitude, and up to Piccadilly Circus, on the doorstep of London's red light district."
Parishioners from St Paul's will be joined on the walk by worshippers from St Mary's, in Osterley; Hounslow Evangelical Church; All Saints, Isleworth; Maswell Park, Hounslow; and Chiswick Baptist Church.
On the first day they will meet at T4 and get the tube to Hatton Cross, as they cannot walk across Heathrow, before trekking from there to Hounslow West tube station.
They will then walk from Hounslow West to Acton Town on the Saturday, when they will be joined by Feltham and Heston MP Seema Malhotra, and from Acton Town to Piccadilly Circus the following day.
The walk is part of Hope for Justice's Zoe Challenge, named after one of the first girls it rescued, for which walkers across the country are schlepping the distance from the north to the south pole in an effort to raise £125,000.
* You can donate to Walk the Line Hounslow here or by texting WTLH61 followed by the amount you wish to give (the suggested donation is £2) to 70070.
* Sonia Goman and Anna Graj, both of Bath Road, Hounslow, are due to appear at Southwark Crown Court on July 6 next year accused of conspiracy to traffic into the UK for sexual exploitation and conspiracy to control prostitution.
