City break turned into aid mission

A thoughtful Lanarkshire couple carried out an inspirational charitable effort last week as they helped Ukrainian refugees fleeing from war.

Shona Graham was taking partner Stuart Younger on holiday to Krakow to celebrate his 40th birthday, but leading up to the trip, the pair wanted to support those escaping the horrors of the ongoing Russian attack.

The couple decided to take an extra suitcase with them filled with vital provisions, medical supplies and items for children to drop off at a crisis centre in the Polish city.

Thanks to an overwhelming response to their appeal on social media, hundreds of donations flooded in from friends, family, and members of the community, with the case full to the brim for those in need.

It included children’s clothing, nappies, toiletries, first aid kits and plenty of medicines for adults and kids.

And not only were locals happy to donate items to be transported overseas, but a fantastic £500 was also raised for the cause and will now be donated to the British Red Cross which has launched an emergency appeal to help Ukraine.

Shona, from Blantyre, says volunteers at the Jewish community centre of Krakow were over the moon with the donations and told the items were exactly what they were looking for.

Kids’ medicines such as Calpol were greatly appreciated as almost 50 bottles were donated and squeezed into the suitcase.

Applauding the couple’s efforts was their airline easyjet, who insisted on not charging

Shona and Stuart for the extra luggage as they welcomed the kind gesture.

Shona said: “We came across the idea on a Facebook page on visiting Krakow. And somebody was there a week prior saying they were really in need of children’s medicine, nappies and things like that.

“We decided to take an extra case and we have a good group of friends so we put a post on Facebook and ended up with 49 bottles of Calpol to take with us.

“People also donated money but we couldn’t buy any more to get in the case, it was that much. So that will now be donated to the Red Cross.”

It was when Shona was looking for ideas for things to do on her trip that she discovered the travellers page on Facebook, where other holidaymakers had recently undertook similar gestures.

That allowed locals to donate the items needed most as the Lanarkshire community rallied to help the cause.

And while in Poland, the couple also left the empty suitcase at the crisis centre as volunteers advised they were also badly needed.

Shona added: “When we dropped the stuff off to the people in Poland they were honestly so grateful, you would have thought we had given them a million pounds.

“They also said that they really needed the cases so we gave them that as well which they were really grateful for.”