Four vans and 46 hours as charity drives Ukraine donations from Wombourne to Poland

The Jet Singh Trust from Wombourne completed its first cross-continental donation drive to deliver hundreds of items of clothing, heating items, sleeping gear and other donations to people caught up in the war in Ukraine.

Travelling for more than 46 hours in both directions, the four vans left Wombourne on Friday evening and travelled across France and Germany, with two members on each van taking it in turns to drive, while the other person rested.

Co-ordinator Davinder Chatha said there had been a few issues along the way, starting at Dover when it became apparent they didn't have the right paperwork to travel.

Mr Chatha, a former wrestler, set up the charity in memory of his brother Jatinder who died aged 33 in 2016.

He said: "The journey was so hard because we were in the vehicles the whole time there and back and we weren't helped by the delays in Dover when they said we didn't have the right paperwork.

"We resolved that by buying tickets as tourists as they were asking about us having an agent at the other end and we didn't have that because we are personally delivering these donations and we're not handing them over to any business.

"After this, we were able to get going and, apart from a tyre blowing just after the Polish border, we were able to meet our colleagues in Poland at a service station and hand over all of the donations into the lorry they'd brought with them."

Mr Chatha said no one in the group had slept much during the journey, which saw them get back to Wombourne around 6pm on Sunday night, but said it was worth it for what they were able to do.

He said: "It's fantastic to be able to do this and help people who desperately need things and we've started an appeal this week to let people know what they can donate and how they can help.

"We've been approached by someone who said they'll fly things over to Poland for us for free and we're planning to do this on a weekly basis going forward."