TWO friends sharing a pint in the pub made the decision to drive more than a thousand miles to take donations to refugees fleeing Ukraine.

What started as two men in a van turned into six vans, twelve drivers, and piles and piles of donations, as the community rallied around the effort.

Downton resident George Syrett, 39, owner of consultancy firm Kington Property, said that they originally set out to raise £500 to cover fuel costs, but ended up raising £20,000.

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The plan was thought-up by George and his friend David Williamson-Jones, a site-finder at Microsoft from Stratford Tony.

George said: “David and I were obviously shocked about what’s going on out there.

“The idea was forged over a phone call, but we said we ought to sit down – like all good plans, they come together in the pub – so we had a pint at The Goat in Downton to talk about it.

“We decided to take a van and it was just going to be him and I and one vehicle. We set up a fundraising page and we were inundated with donations of items to his house and to the village pub.

“We suddenly realised we didn’t have enough space in our van, so we got another van, but then someone else phoned up to offer their van to help cope with the piles of donations.

"We ended up with six vans and twelve drivers. It was a real team effort.”

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On March 4, they set off from the pub to drive to Poland, spending a night in Antwerp to break up the journey.

They headed to Przemysl train station, near the Poland-Ukraine border, where they came across a number of charities to donate to.

These included the World Food Kitchen, which was serving hot food, and the Przemysl Town Council charity, as well as giving physical donations to refugees.

They also paid for a number of people to get into taxis and get to where they needed to be.

This came with its own set of challenges, as many of those fleeing were women and children, who didn't trust the men at first.

"We were four English guys at the train station asking people to get into their vans, and they were obviously aware of traffiking and things like that," George said.

"They didn't want to go into the taxis we were paying for them, so we had to get them to choose their own taxis.

"Once we had persuaded the first group, they were very useful at translating to the others so they knew what was going on, as there was the language barrier."

George described the scene at the train station as "very emotional": “There were thousands of people very upset. It was all very well organised, with many charity workers there, but it was just the sight of mainly women and children coming off the trains.

“There were children who hadn’t seen their parents for three or four days, as they had been pushed onto packed trains by their parents to get them out of the country.

“The children had been stood there with volunteers for three or four days waiting for their mums to come off the trains. The whole thing was very emotional.”

With their vans empty, they helped some refugees make journeys to safety – in George’s van, he took a few to Frankfurt, to be looked after by family friends.

Another van went on to Brussels, where George’s brother then took over their care, and they are now in Paris awaiting a visa to come to the UK.

George says he will host the family for a couple of weeks in Downton when they are able to come, before finding them a place to rent and some work.

George added: “It was an amazing response that we had, and we are very grateful to everyone – not only the people who drove the vans, but the huge number of people who donated and supported it.

“It was a privilege to be able to do it.”

Salisbury Journal:

Newsquest has pledged to donate proceeds from sales of some of its largest newspapers to the Red Cross DEC Ukraine Humanitarian appeal, which is dedicated to helping and saving those affected by this horrific and bloody war. We’re asking you to join us.

Please join us: justgiving.com/fundraising/therewithukraine 

Donations made via JustGiving and use of the JustGiving website will be subject to the JustGiving privacy policy https://www.justgiving.com/about/info/privacy-policy/privacy-policy-v30 and cookie policy https://www.justgiving.com/about/info/cookie-notice 

None of the donation will be collected by Newsquest. Financial transactions are with JustGiving to donate to the British Red Cross Society DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

In the unlikely event that the British Red Cross Society raise more money than can be reasonably and efficiently spent, any surplus funds will be used to help them prepare for and respond to other humanitarian disasters anywhere in the world.

For more information visit  https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/disaster-fund Charity Registration No. Eng/Wales 220949,Scot SC037738, IOM 0752, Jers430

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