The Polish community in a Warwickshire town is leading the way in delivering humanitarian aid from the county to people living in Ukraine.
The latest out-of-service ambulance, packed with relief supplies to support victims of the Russia-Ukraine war, left Royal Leamington Spa on Monday morning.
Since the start of the conflict, more than 40 vehicles have made the three-day journey to Leżajsk on the Poland-Ukraine border, along with 250 tons of aid so far.
Each ambulance costs between £7,000 and £8,000 to purchase, plus the cost of sorting the vehicles for the journey across Europe.
Dawid Kozlowski, from the Polish Center at Royal Leamington Spa, said: “We are very proud of what we have achieved for such a small organization and it says a lot about our community.”
Mr Kozlowski works for LKQ Euro Car Parts, which has provided major financial support to the relief missions, and Warwick and Leamington MP Matt Western has taken part in two of the recent trips.
During the war, the Leamington group even supplied six washing machines to a group of nuns supporting displaced people.
“It’s not something you think about, but these are the problems they have,” Kozlowski said.
“We see more and more people from the community wanting to get involved. As we said from day one: it is not just a Polish project.
“We are now at a stage where most of our volunteers are not Polish and that is great to see.”
The latest trip will also see the delivery of mobility aids to Ukraine for soldiers who have lost limbs.
The Leamington organization also helped fund eye surgery for a 14-year-old boy.
“When we were arranging to take ambulance number one to Ukraine, we arranged for Ignit and his mother to come across the border and meet us,” Mr Kozlowski said.
“He came up to me and said ‘thank you for giving me a second life’ and you realize that one person can make a difference in someone else’s life.”
Royal Leamington Spa Mayor Judith Clarke attended an event at the Polish Center earlier this year and said she was “so impressed with what they did”.
“I was very, very humbled to meet these people,” she said.
She spoke to her husband Steve after the event and he decided to sign up as a driver for the trip this week with his lifelong friend Kaz Librowski, whose parents are Polish, and another friend Paul Elsden.
“I am very proud that Steve has taken on this challenge to help the people of Ukraine,” she said.
“Many people in Leamington took in Ukrainian refugees and that was a sign of what a great community we are, and people are helping all over Warwickshire.”
The mayor’s wife added: “I had known about this operation for a while, then Judith went to the event at the Polish Center, told me about it and I thought ‘I would like to do that’.
“I am strongly motivated by everything that stops Putin. I don’t think we can make an armed invasion work.
“All it takes for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing, so at least we do something.
“It helps and I’m sure the Ukrainians appreciate it.”
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