Matt Sims
Hi and welcome to another Motorhome Matt Podcast. I am the motorhome nerd Matt Sims, and I’m talking to you today from home because this episode is a little different.
We are very fortunate to live with this fantastic view of North Somerset. Our view stretches for miles. And we are under no illusion of how lucky we are to live in this stunning location. Last night on the news, we were told the west of Ukraine was being heavily bombed by the Russians, displacing further many hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who are using that area as a safe haven.
No doubt the news and images have reached many of us and have moved us to tears and, for some, to action. This morning I spoke with Jon Truscott, who has just got back from a drive to and from Ukraine in his motorhome. Jon was intent on taking action and did just that.
How Jon got the idea to drive his motorhome to Ukraine
Matt Sims
Hi, Jon. It’s great to meet you. And welcome back to the UK. I see you’re still in the motorhome. I presume you’re not just home, are you?
Jon Truscott
Pretty much, yes! Yes, just after midnight this morning, and then with an hour time change.
Matt Sims
Thank you for getting home and then taking time out to speak to me. You must be pretty exhausted.
Jon Truscott
Good to talk to you face to face, Matt.
Matt Sims
Yes. Well, lots of calls whilst you’ve been travelling. So Jon, tell us your story. What happened? We know that you were headed off to Ukraine with your motorhome full of aid.
Jon Truscott
So I heard of someone who had done exactly this with a van, literally loaded it up with aid and driven it to Eastern Poland, to the Ukrainian border. And they actually gave a lift to some Ukrainians and delivered them to family members in France on the way back, which I thought was great. And I thought, ‘We’re all thinking what we can do, and everyone is doing what they can.’ I thought, ‘Well, I could do that.’
So my initial thoughts were, ‘Where do I get a van from?’ and then of course the penny dropped that I have a van on the drive. It actually carries, I now know, an incredible amount of aid. So I contacted Andrew Ditton, who very kindly publicised the idea, and I set out with the idea of trying to encourage others with motorhomes to do a similar thing.
Help from Bournemouth to Ukraine
Jon Truscott
I then contacted Help from Bournemouth to Ukraine, which is an organisation that has a massive amount of aid that’s been gathered from all over the UK to get to Poland. And long story short, I drove my motorhome from Bournemouth to Poznań in Poland full of aid. That’s really what I did.
Matt Sims
And these guys are local to you, aren’t they, Help from Bournemouth to Ukraine?
Jon Truscott
Yes. They’re an amazing setup.
Matt Sims
Tell us a bit about them. What’s their setup?
Jon Truscott
It was started by a guy called Karol Swiacki, who is a Polish guy who’s lived in Bournemouth since 2006. He put out a radio appeal for aid to be dropped off at a local Polish store in Bournemouth, and he said he will get it to where it’s needed. This was three weeks ago.
Well, now they have a hangar at Bournemouth airport. They have a superstore that is not being used at Castlepoint in Bournemouth, they have another warehouse in Poole, and they are shipping literally hundreds of pallets of aid into Ukraine and into Poland where it’s needed. But he seems very, very well connected.
The key thing is that they have the aid and they know where it needs to be. So it seemed a great organisation to get involved with from the transport point of view.
Matt Sims
And so what kind of things were you carrying over in your motorhome?
Jon Truscott
A whole variety of things. Lots of dried foodstuffs and tins, lots of baby food, nappies, babies’ cot mattresses, all new, all donated, so all still wrapped in cellophane. And I have to say it made fantastic padding to protect the van from the other stuff in the van. Blankets, probably 40 or 50 sleeping bags, cot beds, roller mattresses, sanitary products, a whole host of items are all needed for people who have nothing at the moment.
Matt Sims
Absolutely. They’re walking down the road with their home in a carrier bag, aren’t they, as someone put it to me the other day. It’s just beggar’s belief. So tell us a bit more. We’ll come back to the charity in a minute and some of the impact of you loading up a motorhome with all this stuff. But you headed off – did you pay for the fuel and the ferry? Was that at your cost?
Jon Truscott
I raised the money through a Just Giving page for fuel costs. And I put on there that I wanted to raise money for one trip but if I raised enough for two, I’ll do two. And I have, so I will do another trip. The ferry is provided free of charge by Stena Line to Help from Bournemouth to Ukraine. So if you do a run for them, they can organise a ferry crossing for you both ways.
They also have free travel through the Channel Tunnel, I believe. So getting across to the continent is straightforward and free. Thereafter it’s just fuel costs, really.
Jon’s journey to Ukraine
Matt Sims
You arrived in Poland. You were given an address. You went to Poland and you were prepared, you said to me earlier, to drive to Ukraine, if you could or were required to.
Jon Truscott
Yes.
Matt Sims
And what happened when you got there?
Jon Truscott
So it was a local community centre in a community outside of Poznań. When I arrived, obviously there was a language difficulty. So I arrived there. I turned up and I, first of all, had to explain who I was and why I was there. And there were a bit bewildered because, at that point, they didn’t have any refugees at that particular location.
And I have since found out that they do have almost like a shop – no money changes hands – but it’s a centre for the Ukrainians who are already hosted locally to come and get provisions and essential items that they need. Because as you say, they left with their whole world in a carrier bag.
Matt Sims
Was there a risk that they thought you’d turned up to have a holiday because you’re in a motorhome?
Jon Truscott
No, they were a bit bewildered to see me, as I say because they weren’t expecting me. But once they realised why I was there, they were absolutely delighted because they already had aid that they were distributing to these local families that were hosting Ukrainians.
But I should say they’re expecting 40 to 50 refugees every Monday, who will be accommodated in another sports hall under their management.
Matt Sims
And tell me, Jon, how far was this place from the Ukrainian border? Ukraine is a huge country.
Jon Truscott
Oh, yes.
Matt Sims
Do you know how far it is from the border? And how are they getting to these places, these Ukrainians?
Jon Truscott
I don’t know, I’ll be honest. But it’s good, I’m guessing, 300-350 miles to the border from Poznań. The nation of Poland is doing an absolutely incredible job. I really tried to talk to people about how they were coping, what they thought, what they thought their government was doing and where they thought it was all going.
And everyone, everyone just said, ‘We must do this.’ There are no ifs or buts. There’s no reluctance. No one appeared to feel it was a burden. Everyone was pulling for the cause.
Matt Sims
I didn’t know whether we should talk about the fact that these folks have travelled 350 miles from the border to get to this place. And they may have lived 100 miles inside Ukraine.
Jon Truscott
Most likely, they’ve lived further into Ukraine than that, because obviously, the war is mostly in the east and the south. I think it’s 700 miles across Ukraine. So if you left from the east of Ukraine, that’s 700 miles plus the journey into Poland.
But the Polish authorities have got it very, very well covered. So I think they would have had assistance from the border to the various refugee centres around Poland.
Matt Sims
So you were able to deliver the aid. And then your plan was to potentially bring a Ukrainian family or some Ukrainian individuals back to Britain in comfort in your beautiful Bürstner. It’s a big Bürstner you’ve got. We’ll talk about your motorhome in a minute if that’s alright. But in terms of the last few days, your plan was to bring a family home but that didn’t work out, did it? Tell me what happened.
Jon Truscott
It’s an issue mainly because of people traffickers, I think. The Polish authorities quite rightly are doing their best to protect the refugees that are in their care. A good deed unfortunately gets wiped out by not good deeds. I thought it’d be great just to bring someone back.
The reality is, it’s not going to happen. The Polish authorities are very protective of the refugees. But the kind of naive notion that I could just give someone a left obviously didn’t happen. And there we are.
Matt Sims
Which must have been heartbreaking for you. I mean, that was your big plan, to come back with a Ukrainian family. And here we are in the UK, the Homes for Ukraine portal is set up. And we discussed that yes, we live quite remotely. But we thought, ‘Well, yes, we would host a Ukrainian family.’ But on doing research into it, we need to have a name of a Ukrainian, or Ukrainians, that we wish to propose come stay with us. I don’t know any Ukrainians. And presumably nor did you.
Jon Truscott
No, I didn’t. And as I say, the firewall that is there with the Polish authorities meant I couldn’t literally just go up to people or ask people to go to people and talk to them and say, ‘Look, this is the opportunity.’
The other thing I spent a lot of time on while I was there was trying to find a match for friends of mine, who have offered to host, who are looking for families. Because as you highlight, you have to have someone nominated. So I prepared almost a CV for them in English and Ukrainian. I visited two local associations that historically were trade associations, but have now turned their efforts into relocating refugees.
The long and the short was, on both occasions, they said that, first of all, they know nothing about the UK government scheme. So again, from the protection of the refugees point of view, that was a big stumbling block. They are working very hard to relocate people within the EU, which they do know about. It’s one scheme for 27 countries. So that’s much easier for them to grasp.
And you have to bear in mind that everyone is working to the max in this area. And the other issue is that people don’t really want to leave Poland.
Matt Sims
A really real example is that if the UK was invaded, or England was invaded, and we were being displaced from here, which is unthinkable, where would we go?
As you were talking about – would we dash across the water to a refugee camp in Calais? Or would we go 1500 miles away to Ukraine if they say, ‘We will house you, English people. Come here.’ And you’re making the point, which I find fascinating, why would they wish to travel that far away from home?
Jon Truscott
Bear in mind that they still have loved ones in Ukraine. Their men are fighting in a war and dying, elderly relatives, their homes, they don’t know if they’re still standing or destroyed. If it was me, I would be as close to the border as I could be. I certainly wouldn’t consider travelling all this way.
So I’m not saying that nobody wants to come to the UK. Don’t get me wrong there. There will be refugees who would like to come to the UK. But in terms of the resources of people and organisations who are looking after the refugees, they’re putting their efforts where they’re best spent, and that is on moving people within the EU because they understand that there is a demand albeit I think limited to move beyond Poland into France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, that sort of thing. But not beyond that on any significant scale so they’re not putting their efforts into that.
So me turning up saying, ‘I’ve got a motorhome, can I give someone a lift?’ – that was a bit of a non-starter really, so quite naive, I think. It was disappointing. I really wanted to do something.
Matt Sims
So you came back alone. You travelled back.
Jon, just tell us, what motorhome have you got? You’re in a Bürstner. Just tell us what it is for those who understand motorhomes listening to this.
Jon Truscott
It’s a Bürstner Ixeo, so it’s an A-class, seven and a half metre motorhome. I have to say, thanks Bürstner, it’s been amazing. The drive over and the drive back was effortless, really. It went with 750 kilos of payload in it. It was great. I did 28 miles to the gallon.
Matt Sims
That’s a pretty healthy payload, which I presume you filled with all of this kit that you were able to take over.
Jon Truscott
Absolutely. Heavy stuff down low, lightweight stuff filling up all the empty spaces. It’s amazing how much you can actually get in a motorhome.
How can others help?
Matt Sims
So people listening to this, many of them will have a motorhome. I imagine a lot of people would be very nervous about bringing refugees back in their motorhome. And there will equally be lots of people listening who are frustrated that they, like us, have signed up their home for the Homes for Ukraine, and they haven’t been able to.
But your message to them would be, ‘Don’t be frustrated, help. Do something else.’ And there are lots that people can do. What call to action would you give people who are listening to this? My view is don’t do nothing, do something. But what can people do?
Jon Truscott
Well, I agree with you entirely on that Matt. There’s a world of things people can do. But if I could just give it a bit of perspective from actually having been over there and talked to people and seen it.
So there are 10 million refugees from Ukraine. 6.5 million are displaced internally. 2.2 million are now crammed into the west of Ukraine. There are over 2 million in Poland. So the scale of the problem is huge. And we have to do something. We can’t just sit back and not do anything.
I was looking at some stuff online and the UN High Commission for Refugees recognised a week ago that Poland was at breaking point. So I’ve been over there and I’ve seen all these people and they are all amazing. They’re working hard. They’re volunteering their time. And they need to be supported.
One country cannot support that number of people coming in within a month on its own. So we have to get aid there. From my point of view, having actually driven over there, I’ve chosen to focus on the logistics of it, shall we say. We’ve got aid in the UK.
As I say, Help from Bournemouth to Ukraine has hundreds of pallets sitting waiting to get transportation over there. They know the area, they know Poland and they have the contacts to know that in my case, I took a relatively small consignment of 750 kilos to a smaller need. The big need they can service with articulated lorries, and they can go to where they need an awful lot of aid, but it’s targeted, which I think is a great benefit of them knowing what the need is.
So logistics is what it’s all about. And initially, I tried to get going by motivating motorhome owners to drive over in their motorhomes, which is absolutely valid. If you don’t want to take your motorhome, borrow a van, hire a van, if you’ve got a horsebox, fill it up, whatever it is, but this stuff needs to get there. We can’t get fatigued with this.
Matt Sims
And a vehicle of that size is valid. That’s what you’re saying.
Jon Truscott
Absolutely, yes.
Matt Sims
Do these smaller vehicles make a difference?
Jon Truscott
They do, yes. And in terms of how to go about that, well, in my case, I simply put together a Just Giving page and said, ‘Pay for my fuel, everything else is down to me.’ And I’ve got enough for over two trips. Any excess I can donate to Help from Bournemouth to Ukraine.
I’m hoping that we can perhaps motivate the industry to donate vehicles or donate towards the cost of renting vehicles. And again, any excess I can put towards that.
I suppose my battle cry really is to the leisure vehicle industry, if you have a vehicle that you can spare, or if you can fundraise within your premises enough money to rent a van, then do it. It’s not difficult. Get it rented, get someone down to Bournemouth, fill it up with aid, drive it over there and drive back. And that’s all we’re asking people to do. It’s not difficult.
Charity support
Matt Sims
Help from Bournemouth to Ukraine is one of many charities doing exactly this, aren’t they? And these guys were local to you, but people could do their own research on where they can find a charity. They’re all over the internet and they can find a charity close to them that’s doing the same thing.
So your call to action to the leisure vehicle industry is, ‘There’s help needed now in terms of donation of vehicles and resources and funds for vehicles.’ So that’s noted. And for the individuals listening to this, you can help as well. Maybe they can just drive. Maybe they don’t have a motorhome or a van or don’t want to use their motorhome or van. But they could drive.
Jon Truscott
All you need is 4 or 5 days free and a passport these days. And that’s it.
Matt Sims
What do people do? They say, ‘Well, okay, I’ve got a week off, I’m retired, I’ve got some holiday.’ What could they do? How can we help them respond to this? Do they contact the charity that’s doing the aid or is there somewhere else they go?
Jon Truscott
You have to have aid to take, so you have to contact a charity of some description. I keep supporting these guys because they have grown at such a pace. Someone described it much better to me – they shouldn’t be called Help from Bournemouth to Ukraine, they should be UK Help via Bournemouth because they are collecting aid from all over the country, from Scotland south.
So if you do help with these guys, then you won’t just be concentrating on south coast aid. And if you’re from the Midlands or whatever, don’t feel that they’re not representing you and your community because they’re not, they’re representing the UK really.
But yes, you have to have the aid. So yes, find a charity. The great thing again about these guys is they know exactly where it needs to go. Their system of contacts over there, they’ve got contacts in Lviv. They’re getting food aid all the way through to Odesa and to Kyiv so people are actually having food to eat because people are starving over there at the moment. That’s the reality.
They have the contacts in Ukraine who are actually getting the stuff to where it’s needed. So yes, contact a charity, load up your van and go.
Donations and other ways to help
Matt Sims
If people can’t do that, just give money. Presumably, these guys are fundraising as well, are they?
Jon Truscott
They are, indeed, yes. If you go to their website or to Facebook, or just Google ‘Help from Bournemouth to Ukraine.’ They are using money to buy food locally where they can. They have their own vehicle now.
They’re making regular runs with local folk across the border into Ukraine, as I say down as far as Odesa and beyond. So they need money as much as aid. So they’ve got aid in pallets waiting to go, but they’ve got to get it out somehow and they’ve got to make it happen and that takes cash.
Matt Sims
I know in Bristol where I live, there was a call for translators, Ukrainian speaking people, who could translate. Our local children’s hospital is now housing very poorly Ukrainian children who have cancer and they were lifted out. It was on BBC News just 2 days ago.
I think 600 children were lifted from hospitals in Ukraine with cancer and have been brought all across Europe and Bristol Children’s Hospital has some now staying there. So even if you can speak Ukrainian, then you can help by offering to translate.
Jon Truscott
Absolutely.
Matt Sims
And they’re desperate for that in Bristol. So if you’re listening and you speak Ukrainian, please get in touch with the Bristol Children’s Hospital. They need your help.
So there are plenty of ways that people can respond. I think, Jon, you would agree with me, the main message that we want to get across is, you see this on the news. And it’s heartbreaking. And we watch it sitting in the comfort of our front room, thinking ‘Oh, that’s awful.’
Don’t do nothing, do something, even if that is donating a tenner. Just get on Facebook, get on the internet and Google a charity that needs help. Jon, is there any other message you’d like to add or pass on as we wrap up? Because I’m going to let you go and have a lie-down and I know the Formula One’s on and you’re desperate to watch that as well.
Jon Truscott
I have an appointment with the sofa and the telly.
Matt Sims
Well deserved.
Jon Truscott
Really, Matt, just to say if people can just put their brain to the idea of, ‘Can I get hold of a vehicle? Can I blag a vehicle? Can I borrow one? Can I crowdfund enough to rent one?’ In the industry particularly, I’m going to spend a few days this week contacting local businesses and see if they will support this.
Matt Sims
And it could be a man or a motorhome, can’t it?
Jon Truscott
Absolutely, yes. A vehicle. From my initial ideas, I sense there’s a bit of reluctance from people to use their precious motorhomes. These are our cherished vehicles.
All I can say is we loaded this very carefully. The guys who helped me load it were willing to split pallets and put soft stuff against the walls and all the rest of it and just rearrange the cushions against the wall.
There is not a blemish on it, there is not a single mark. There’s a little sticky bit of sellotape on the window where I put a poster. And that’s it, honestly. So your home will not suffer from doing this. But your sense of doing something will.
UK Motorhomes for Ukraine on Facebook
Matt Sims
Yes, you’ll be rewarded for doing something. There’s a Facebook group that you’re very much very active in. Tell us more about that.
Jon Truscott
Okay, so it’s called UK Motorhomes for Ukraine. And I started it really, as I say, the initial idea was to really mobilise motorhomes specifically. I’ve posted my experience on there. I haven’t really covered the journey back yet, but certainly going there and what I encountered there, and I’m very happy to use that as a kind of touchstone, if you like, for people who might be interested in helping.
So if anybody has any ideas around this, get on Facebook, Messenger me, whatever you like. I can tell you what I experienced, I can tell you about COVID testing across Europe, where the fuel prices are best, all that sort of nonsense. Contact me there. I will endeavour to bring it all together. If we get 2 more vehicles over there, it’ll be a great success, it’ll make a difference. If we can get 10 or 20 then that’ll be just amazing.
Matt Sims
So if you’re listening then you can head to the Facebook group UK Motorhomes to Ukraine. Jon’s very happy to give you information and answer your questions. There’s no doubt you’ve got plenty of them. But please, again, if you’re listening to this, don’t do nothing. Do something, whatever that is. Every little bit is going to help. This is a real crisis. We watch this from home and it doesn’t really feel real to us, does it? And Jon, you’ve seen it. There are people starving. We don’t know where they’re sleeping, do we, at the moment? You didn’t see where they were sleeping.
Jon Truscott
Those in Ukraine, no. So at the centre I went to in Poznań, I have seen photographs of the interiors. That is actually one of the areas or one of the centres that were featured in the UK media about a week or 10 days ago. 200-250 people sleeping on cot beds in rows in a sports hall. But I have seen the exterior of it.
I was getting some help from one of the volunteers there, a lovely girl who spoke English. She made a dozen phone calls on my behalf trying to grease the wheels, but it wasn’t happening. But all I can say is, gosh – I saw people there who are absolutely shell shocked.
It’s really quite distressing to talk about it actually. Looks on people’s faces I’ve never seen before.
Matt Sims
And children.
Jon Truscott
Yes. Old people. And then mums, kids. Yes. No adult men. There are old men. And there are teenage boys and younger.
The really noticeable thing is this whole demographic, the males between 18 and 60 are not there. They’re at war.
Matt Sims
Fighting.
Jon Truscott
Yes. Oh, yes. It’s grim. It’s grim. And I don’t want to be doom and gloomy about it. But I feel we have to help and we mustn’t get fatigued. We mustn’t in a week or two go, ‘Oh, yes, that war’s still going on.’ The problem is getting bigger. It’s not getting smaller. And it will continue, no matter what happens as far as the war is concerned, it will continue to get bigger for quite a long time to come. So this kind of effort can’t diminish.
Matt Sims
And it’s close to home. It’s a day’s drive away. We can make a difference, can’t we?
Jon Truscott
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
Matt Sims
Jon, thank you ever so much for taking time out, as sleep-deprived as you are.
Jon Truscott
I’ve not been eloquent today!
Matt Sims
Not to mention losing an hour as well, which hasn’t helped.
Jon Truscott
Yes, absolutely.
Matt Sims
But Jon, I wish you a well-earned break. And we will definitely be following your next trip with interest. And thank you for taking the time to speak to me.
Jon Truscott
Well, thanks for getting involved, Matt. Because as I say, we’re all doing our bit in our own particular way. We all find a little niche where we think we can make the best contribution. And obviously, your efforts are very much appreciated as well. Because getting the message out is a huge part of increasing the aid and the help.
Don’t do nothing, do something
Matt Sims
Wow, what a story. How has that left you feeling about the situation in Ukraine? I hope it’s motivated you to believe that you can do something.
I would hope that you don’t just do nothing. There will be something you can do, some action you can take, even if it’s just giving £10 to a charity that needs your help.
Close to our own family, we have friends who are raising money. They are in Romania raising money for a chap who is driving his van to and from Ukraine, bringing Ukrainian families to safety in Romania.
If you use Google or Facebook you will, I’m sure, find a community group or church group that needs your help that is raising money for a cause that they are trying to serve. Maybe you can drive or you have a van or you have a motorhome. Maybe you can drive someone else’s van or you can lend a van.
Whatever you choose to do, please don’t do nothing. Do something. I hope this podcast episode has moved you to believe you can help and be part of a movement from the UK. Please, let’s unite. Let’s stand together for Ukraine and help. Take action. Do something. Thank you.
