The safety of ShelterBox volunteers is the Helston charity’s “greatest priority”, its chief executive has stressed.

Alison Wallace was speaking in the wake of the brutal killing of aid worker David Haines in Iraq at the weekend.

Although Mr Haines was not directly linked to ShelterBox, the charity he worked for frequently works alongside the Helston aid distributors – including in Iraq, where shelter and equipment has been provided to thousands of families.

Writing on ShelterBox’s website, Ms Wallace said: “My first thought was for his family and friends, who will have endured month after month of despair and hope, now so cruelly dashed. Our hearts go out to them.

“My second thought was that David Haines was an aid worker, whose only motivation was to ease the suffering of people caught up in conflict.”

Mr Haines worked for ACTED (the Agency for Technical Co-operation and Development), the Paris-based non-governmental organisation which frequently partners ShelterBox around the world, and is currently helping to distribute the charity’s aid in Iraq.

Currently ShelterBox does not have any response team members in either Iraq or Syria, although aid continues to be distributed by local partner organisations. But Ms Wallace said there was “little doubt” her charity would need to send teams into these areas again, and probably to other conflict zones such as Ukraine or Gaza.

“I want to reassure everyone that the security of our aid workers is our primary concern, and that all foreseeable dangers are considered before we deploy response teams to help families in need.

“Every SRT (ShelterBox Response Team member) has been rigorously trained in personal safety by security industry and military professionals. No one who wears the ShelterBox badge is ever knowingly put in harm’s way, and there is a great reliance on teamwork and communications to maximise individual safety.”

She added that if hostages were now being taken from wider areas, from journalists to aid workers, the charity would “redouble our efforts to keep our people safe.”

Ms Wallace said: “David Haines’s death is bound to make the whole third sector measure every risk, and every single humanitarian footstep, more cautiously.

“And I promise the loved ones of those ShelterBox employees or volunteers, who reach out so generously to families caught up in war, that their safe return is absolutely paramount.”