UKRAINIAN refugees living in the Forest and Wye Valley gave their “heartfelt thanks” to local organisations who have donated their time and resources to allow them to come together as a community.

Members of the Ukraine Community Hub, which meets regularly at the Assembly Rooms in St Briavels, embarked on a day trip to explore the city of Bristol on Sunday (July 10), arranged by group organiser Karen Cockfield.

And the group were thankful for the generosity of Stagecoach staff, who provided them with a double decker bus for the trip.

Bristol
The group thanked Stagecoach for their generosity following their day out in Bristol (Ukraine Hub)

Karen extended a special thanks to Operations Manager Joe Beckley, his assistant Leanne Williams and driver Graeme Allerdyce, who drove early from Cheltenham to collect the members from all over the Forest and Chepstow.

She said: “I called Stagecoach just 4 days beforehand to ask them for this enormous favour – never mind the logistics to arrange at such short notice!

“I am an eternal optimist equalled only by Monty Python’s Black Knight, but even I knew it was a quite a challenge.

“So you can imagine my amazement to receive an immediate and very enthusiastic ‘can-do’ attitude from Joe, who then pulled out all the stops to help me make it happen”.

She added that the group had “a wonderful day”, with many of the families having met each other for the first time.

The trip was the group’s third outing in nine weeks since the hub was launched, including a day out to Ogmore by Sea courtesy of Coalway’s Willetts Coaches.

The second outing came thanks to Lydbrook Band, who offered free tickets to group members to their recent ‘Proms in the Park’ event at Speech House.

The band extended a warm welcome to the refugees, setting up a special Ukraine Community area and donating £1,000 of their proceeds to support the hub’s future activities.

And during the concert, band member Robert Morgan “delighted” the guests by performing the Ukrainian national anthem.

Lyd
Lydbrook Band gave hub members a warm welcome at their recent Proms in the Park event (Ukraine Hub)

Karen said: “So much incredible goodwill and support out there to try and help our Ukraine residents settle in and enjoy some quality time together. 

Anyone looking to support the group’s activities with a donation should go to their GoFundMe page, ‘Ukraine Community Hub by John Thorncroft’ - a colleague of the hub.

Karen added: “It will be very well spent, rest assured!”