ECHO readers have come forward to help solve a woman's quest to find the camp where her sick nan was stationed during the war.

Suzy Athey, 31, was inundated with more than 40 calls following her appeal for assistance in tracing the exact place on Canvey where her grandmother served.

Marjorie Gamman, 84, whose maiden name was Coppack, was based on the island with the Air Training Service during the Second World War.

As part of the 625 Battery she helped shoot down enemy planes with anti-aircraft guns.

Mrs Athey said: "We had a brilliant response. I rang her up as soon as the information started coming in and told her we might have found it. She's so happy, she's over the moon."

Suzy, of St Annes Road, Canvey, is planning to bring her nan back to the island from Surrey this weekend to reunite her with her wartime past.

Fellow Canvey resident Margaret Johnson, 80, rang up the family and arranged to show them the Little Gypps gunsite, near Little Gypps Close, with the help of her son Maurice, 41.

Mrs Johnson said: "I was a kiddy during the war and remember when the camp was up and running."

The Second Avenue resident said the area was nicknamed "the gunny", but was locked up and grassed over following the war.

As a member of the school meals service, she recalled sending out school dinners from the original camp kitchen after the war.

Keen historian David Thorndike, 73, also got in touch.

He said: "I gave the family pictures of what the site looks like today - the gun mountings are still there - plus a map from the 1950s and records confirming the 625 battery she served in. It was a mixed battery for men and women."

Canvey pensioner Iris White, 83, also phoned Mrs Athey to say she served alongside her nan at the camp.

She said: "There were 100 men and 100 women stationed there.

"Being a gunsite we were only allowed out one night in seven because we had to be on duty all the time. There was a happy atmosphere and we all used to go dancing at the Haystack pub."