Petworth's Ukraine Sunflower Aid sends five hundred of boxes of aid to Ukrainian refugees [In Pictures]

Eddie Boyes together with Petworth town councillor Harsha Desai, Kirsty Madgwick and Marie Diver were keen to do what they could to help Ukrainian refugees so they decided to send boxes of aid to Ukraine and set-up Petworth's branch of the Ukraine Sunflower Aid.

Eddie said: "My wife is from Ukraine, so we wanted to try and do what we can. It was all very very quick, we had drop off points (for people to donate aid) around Petworth and it snowballed, then very quickly we needed a central place to put all of the stuff, and fortunately my wife works for Lord Egremont and the Leconfield Estate. I called them on Thursday and they rang me back immediately and said we could use one of their barns."

Thanks to Eddie and everyone at Petworth's Ukraine Suflower Aid over 500 boxes of donations have been sent to the Poland Ukraine boarder where it will be distributed by Polish NGOs. Combined with Midhurst's branch they have sent over 1,000 boxes of aid and in total Ukraine Sunflower Aid has raised over £60,000.

Eddie said: "The reception from people has been amazing, absolutely incredible, we have had such a huge response people offering donations, people offering their time to help us, we've got a good group of volunteers - we got thirty people on the first night! Some come for an hour or two, some come for a day or on weekends but we are always grateful for whatever time people can give and donations we receive."

Eddie's wife is Ukrainian and they both have family in Ukraine and because of this he is all too aware of plight of the Ukrainian refugees and the need for support.

"It's a dreadful situation, some are just leaving with their whole lives behind them, it is so sad. We are trying to get my sister in law and nieces over to stay with us, my brother in law and father in law, who is 66, are staying to fight. We have a friend who had to stay seven or eight nights in a bomb shelter in Kyiv with her daughter and her partner gone to fight so she was alone"

But the response he has seen is not just from Petworth, but all over Sussex and Hampshire has touched him. Eddie added: "The whole response has just been incredible, mind-blowing, the generosity of everybody - I still cant get over it.

"It is very emotional for me because we've got family there so we want to do stuff, everyone else doesn't and they are all doing it for nothing, it amazes me that all these people turn up everyday just because they want to help."

Eddie stated that this was not the end of the work by Petworth's Ukraine Sunflower Aid. Eddie said: "We will continue to do it as long as we can and further ahead are looking at how we can support the refugees that come to the UK."

The Ukraine Sunflower Aid was created after pub landlord Digby Furneaux invited people on February, 28 to his pub to plan how to support the Ukrainians, he said: "I thought it would be a few mates but 50 people turned up." Among the attendees were a number of people from up and down the country who attended via Zoom, including from Leicester and London.

In the two days prior to Ukraine Sunflower Aid's inception it has gone strength to strength and is now managing to help thousands of refugees in Ukraine and Poland.

To donate please go to bit.ly/Ukrainesunfloweraid or for its Facebook page click here