A group from Nottinghamshire have set out on a 1,700 mile trip to help bring thousands of pounds worth of aid to refugees fleeing Ukraine. Arran bailey, of Nottingham’s ALB Group, and Rob Cassidy, of Mansfield-based New Century Windows, are among those taking part.
They set off on Thursday, March 17, to drive five vans full of aid to Poland before driving on to Hungary buying supplies at Cash and Carries on Thursday after being inundated with donations through a GoFundMe campaign. The pair say they were keen to help after seeing news footage of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing to neighbouring countries. Rob and Arran launched their joint GoFundMe campaign last week, with a target of reaching £5,000 in cash donations. Within 24 hours the campaign had raised £15,000, and almost topped £18,000 by Monday.
Donations also came from Stena Line, which donated the ferry crossing, and Paul Smith, who has donated around 3,000 items of clothing. Originally the team had hoped to deliver the aid to Moldova, because they both felt the 230,000 refugees ending up there had been largely overlooked, but were unable to locate a refugee camp in Moldova to arrange delivery.
