Big-hearted champion of the poor Caitriona Twomey is travelling to the Ukraine tomorrow to distribute 13 tonnes of medical supplies and aid to refugees
The well-known Cork Penny Dinners co-ordinator - who has spent decades feeding the homeless - stressed she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her late mother Breda Lynch.
Ms Twomey and a group of Cork Missing Persons Search and Recovery (CCMPSAR) volunteers will travel to Ukraine as part of a humaitarian effort in five vans loaded with essential supplies.
The mum of seven said: “I’m going to go and we’re leaving Cork at 2pm [on Tuesday], it’s a personal thing for me and we have five full vans with about 13 tonnes of aid.
“We have medical aid and hospital aid and warm clothing, we have a lot of stuff for babies and children such as thermals and we have food as well.
“We’re getting the ferry to Cherbourg, down to Belgium, Germany, into Tarnów in Poland where we’re being met by the Redemptorist Order who are taking us over the border.
“There are things that are badly needed like powerbanks, flashlights and batteries.
“People have been fantastic but tents are also in short supply and we are putting an appeal out for tents.”
Ms Twomey said it means a lot to her as her father served in the Congo and her late mother Breda Lynch travelled with humanitarian aid to Kosovo.
She added: “My mother went to Bosnia and she was out there about 50 times during the war taking aid and of course we saw all of that at home, we grew up with it,” she told RTE Radio One’s Today With Claire Byrne.
“We saw what they were doing and the hard work.”
The team are planning to visit 15 locations, including an orphanage, when they travel through an unofficial ‘green corridor’.
Ms Twomey also praised Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, Bishop Paul Colton for paying for the five vans to sail from Cork to France.
