'Inspired to do more' :Peterborough volunteers to send bumper Christmas aid delivery to Ukraine

An aid team made up of volunteers is hoping to make its largest delivery yet to Ukraine in time for Christmas.

The group of kind-hearted residents and organisations has been delivering food and essential supplies to Ukrainian communities in Sumy Oblast since March, with the first delivery leaving just three weeks after the Russian offensive began.

So far it’s organised five deliveries, transporting more than five tonnes of food to a church in Gliwice, Poland.

From there it is taken to another church in Rivne, western Ukraine, before being delivered to villages near Sumy, close to the border with Russia.

Following the arrival of the latest delivery in early October, the bishop of Sumy wrote a letter thanking the Peterborough team for its continued support.

The volunteers’ spokesman, Richard Astle, said: “It’s wonderful to see the food we have packaged up outside Willowbrook Farm Shop near Helpston reach first Poland, then Rivne, and finally Sumy.

“To get a letter of thanks from the Bishop was very unexpected and will inspire us to do more.”

In addition to transporting food and medical supplies, the team has raised over £60,000 and helped more than 240 refugee children to attend summer camps in Poland.

The project has also raised enough money to buy ten heart valves and 640 sutures for the Kyiv Heart Institute.

Richard continued: “From the start we have wanted to do something to help. We have built a network of partners in England, Poland and Ukraine to ensure that we can safely get food and medicines from Peterborough to Sumy.”

The volunteers have set up additional collection points to help fulfil their ambitious Christmas delivery plan.

These collection points can be found at The Granary Café, St Botolph’s Church, Helpston, along with churches at Thurlby, Baston and Langtoft.

Anyone wishing to help is asked to make a small donation of the following items before Sunday 27 November, including ice, flour, pasta, noodles, any tinned food, paracetamol and sanitary products.

The items will then make the 1,700 mile journey to Gliwice, Poland, in early December before reaching front line communities in Sumy just before Christmas.

Financial donations can be made via the team’s Just Giving page.