Charmaine Bird said that when she signed up to take in Ukrainian refugees nothing could have prepared her for the mammoth task she was unaware she would have to face. The 58-year-old grandmother and her ex-soldier husband Mike, 61, said they’d been let down at every turn of the visa application process and became so overwhelmed Charmaine was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery and Mike was left on daily medication for stress.
Their home has been lovingly decorated with Ukrainian flags and they have ensured Dmytro Budantsev and Alina Honchar, currently stuck in a temporary hostel in Poland, will have everything they need when they arrive. They’ve even got Dmytro on a bricklaying course for when he finally reaches their home in New Tredegar, Caerphilly borough. And they've bought a caravan in Porthcawl so the pair can have time away. But the stress of thinking it could all be for nothing haunts Charmaine every day - so much so she fell seriously ill last week which she says doctors put down to stress.
“I am absolutely outraged by it,” Charmaine told WalesOnline, reflecting on a gruelling two months since she first signed up for the UK Government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme on March 18. “Last Monday it got so bad I was rushed into hospital for emergency surgery on a hernia which doctors said was caused by stress. I was in for a week. I’m honestly not surprised with everything that’s going on.
