Early on Tuesday 15th March a group of local volunteers are travelling to Poland to support the ongoing situation effecting the Ukraine.

The group is made up of staff from a host of businesses and other locals from our community, some with previous army experience and language speaking skills. The team will be taking 3 mini buses and a Transit van provided by John Grose and another Transit van provided by The Millbank Group to Poland. The vehicles will be loaded to the gunnels taking urgently needed humanitarian aid and supplies, on the return journey they will be used to transport Ukrainian refugees to safety.

There are many fantastic organisations getting involved in this appeal, offering free accommodation and ferry crossings to those going over.

Where we come in is trying to raise money to help cover the costs of the fuel for the vehicles. The cost for the fuel on a trip like this for will be approx. £2,500 - the vehicles will be handed over with full tanks – if we are able to raise the other £2000 and maybe more, there could even be the possibility of a second trip.

We thank you all in advance for your support.

*****.....STOP PRESS.....*****

There have now been a further 2 more vehicles donated to go along next week as well as more volunteers taking the number to over 20. We can't thank you all enough for your support already - to help with the additional vehicles we have doubled our target to £4,000

** UPDATE ** - 19.03.22

The team of volunteers are blown away by people’s generosity – thank you - here are a few words about they are getting on so far.

"We’ve made it to Poznan with the humanitarian aid from the Polish White Eagle Club in Balham. It was a very long day on Tuesday but we arrived safely.

On Wednesday we moved to Warsaw to deposit aid at the pre-arranged aid hub at the Warsaw Theatre School, the people here are an inspiration to us all.

We made our way to Lublin Wednesday night and dropped of aid and were greeted by the Mayor who spoiled us with amazing hospitality. Then off to Hrebenne to the refugee centres. We took 42 refugees, 3 dogs and a cat from Hrebenne to Krakow, Katowice and Wroclaw. Last drop was 03:30, all tried to get sleep at 0400 Friday but it is very emotional.

The Polish people and the centres are amazing. Another day on Friday of helping move refugees.

Please donate if you haven’t yet and you can afford to, the need here is beyond words."