The Mayan calendar predicts that the end of the world is less than a month away - but there are some Britons who are taking the doomsday prophecy more seriously than most.

They have built emergency store cupboards filled with food with a long shelf life, are stock piling petrol, weapons, and even condoms, have secret remote hideaways, getaway trailers ready to escape in 15 minutes, nuclear and chemical weapon suits and even an inflatable canoe.

One 'prepper', Edward O'Toole, has already abandoned ship and is living 'off grid' in Slovakia.

Retired soldier Michael Sanderson lives with his wife and two young daughters in Hertfordshire but has a trailer ready for them to escape to a secret Welsh hideaway at 15 minutes' notice.

Mr Sanderson, who served in the Falklands and Northern Ireland, said: 'I’m preparing for a natural disaster.

'Bad things do happen, people’s homes do get burned down, there are floods, there are catastrophic events that affect people completely.

'If you go too late, you’re dead. People say to me "why are you a prepper?" And I’m always baffled by it, because what I say to people is, I don’t understand why you’re not.

Mr Sanderson was prompted into action watching Hurricane Katrina unfolding on the news - one of the deadliest storms to hit the States which devastated New Orleans.

Mr Sanderson said: 'My mum’s 85 years old, you know, I’ve got young children, how do I get the family out? So they didn’t leave, the stayed. And – they expected, they expected somebody to come and save them. And nobody did.

American ex-pat, Annie Durbin, who lives in east London, is a new recruit and believes she is one of the only woman preppers.

She has put together a 'survival kit' including her favourite 'commando knife' which makes her 'feel tough' and can be made into a spear.

'I’ve got lots of condoms, and various lubes and things, because even in times of hardship, people have sex.

(Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)