Kind-hearted pals return from mission of mercy for refugees
FRIENDS TRAVELLED 2,700 MILES WITH DONATIONS FOR UKRAINE
SIX friends from Huddersfield who made a 2,700-mile round trip to deliver aid to Ukraine have returned home having seen the humanitarian crisis up close.
Tim Bamford, Andrew Beckton, Chay Rogers, Jason Butterworth, Andy Dorr and Sam Beckton set off in convoy in three vans packed with medical supplies, sanitary items, food, first aid kits – and cards written in Ukrainian from Year 5 youngsters at St Aidan’s Academy in Skelmanthorpe.
Their route from Denby Dale took them past the school, where cheering pupils waving Ukrainian flags spurred them on.
The journey was by road to North Shields, by ferry to Amsterdam and then onwards to Przemysl in Poland on the Ukraine border, where they spent three hours unloading before heading home.
Tim, a Kirklees councillor representing Denby Dale, said they saw coachloads of refugees arriving at the transit centre – a former supermarket – while they were there. He said watching the scenes left everyone feeling humbled.
“We saw bus after bus coming in and distraught people getting off holding carrier bags containing all their worldly possessions. That’s often all they had – and the clothes they were standing in.
“The people coming in on buses they have nothing. Their homes have been bombed. Some have rescued a few effects, but not much. They’re looking for somewhere to live.”
Tim and his friends made the decision not to speak with any refugees, preferring to let the well-organised centre do its job.
He said: “We left them alone. We didn’t want to wander round, noseying into their despair. We left them with their dignity.
“It’s then that you realise how lucky you are. I think we all went quiet. We all had our own thoughts.”
The slog of driving such a distance meant Tim, Andrew, Chay, Jason, Andy and Paul had little time to consider whether they might be putting themselves at risk. And while Przemysl is not on the front line it is close enough for the effects of the war to make an impact.
“Five minutes away from Przemysl, life is normal,” said Tim.
“You wouldn’t think that anything was happening apart from the big transport planes and helicopters going overhead.
“It was pretty normal on the way down but when we got there people told us that two missiles had hit Lviv and they had heard the explosions in the transit centre. That’s when it brings it home to you.
“To be honest we were too knackered to be scared. And the objective was to get there, give the stuff that we had promised, and work the rest out from there.”
On unloading their supplies – much of it donated locally by people in the Denby Dale area, with some purchased from money donated via a GoFundMe page – the group learned that supply needs have changed.
Tim said: “One man told us there is a shortage of tourniquets and compression dressings for shrapnel and bullet wounds because the Russians have been shooting civilians. That’s what they’re looking for now.
“The immediate problem is easing and more targeted aid is needed to go into Ukraine. It needs to be targeted to what they need on the ground. There’s no point going down there with a vanful of toilet rolls. Most of the aid centres are now only accepting full truckloads of aid.”