Janaza Announcements' event at Bradford's Scholemoor Cemetery

Janaza Announcements, a Muslim bereavement service, has hosted the annual event since 2016, inspiring people to honour the lives of lost loved ones and make a change. 

Some volunteers, who had never visited Bradford before, travelled from London in memory of distant relatives who are buried in the grounds. 

Meanwhile, the entire squad of BD7-based football team, Junior Central Star FC, responded to the call for help. 

Adil Hussain, of Janaza Announcements, said organisers ran out of tools due to the sheer number of volunteers. 

One man briefly left the clean-up to buy more tools out of his own pocket, Adil said. 

Adil told the Telegraph & Argus: “There was a lot of overgrown weeds, grass, graves that have been neglected - loved ones that have passed away and don’t have anyone left to come. You couldn’t walk through it.

“We were honoured by many people dropping off food and drinks. Local businesses came forward. It was amazing. 

“We had a great atmosphere. 

Volunteers working by some graves (Image: UGC)

“The volunteers are unbelievable. We had a huge turnout despite it raining and chucking it down. It just continued all day but that did not put off any volunteers. 

“We split our teams up. One team just empties the bags out, one team will be litter picking, one team will go around making sure everything is intact and nothing’s out of place. We cover the whole of Scholemoor.

The freshened up cemetery (Image: UGC)

“It’s an achievement that all the community comes together. They help each other, they’re helping out someone they don’t know, even cleaning a path for a member of the public to walk past.

“Each and everyone was gaining rewards and they’re in a good spirit of helping out each other. 

“Everyone coming together, it’s a bigger and better achievement.”

The cemetery before the clean-up (Image: UGC)

By the end of the day, three skips donated by Council for Mosques (CfM) and local businesses were full.

Adil said: “When we all come together we can achieve something and that’s the attitude to have. 

Volunteers on bin duty (Image: UGC)

“Many of our original volunteers are still with us. A lot of youngsters enjoy this, helping out, making a change in the area.”

Rashad Bokhari, chief executive at CfM, said a maintenance programme is in place in the cemetery.

Volunteers at work (Image: UGC)

Mr Bokhari said the recent heavy rain had impacted grass growth. 

The CEO said: “Council for Mosques value that partnership and something we’ve been trying to do over the last few years is to have a more transparent relationship with the community we serve.

“When initiatives like this come forward we like the idea of the community getting involved.

“There’s certain changes that are going to come about in these coming months we’re going to be dealing a lot more directly with the community we serve.”