Toys donated in Knaresborough reach Ukraine in time for Christmas

Toys donated by people in the Harrogate district have been distributed to children in Ukraine in time for Christmas.

Knaresborough man Bob Frendt drove a lorry filled with £30,000 of toys across Europe to ensure children in the war-torn country did not go without this festive period.

Now, he has received photos and videos of some of his toys being handed to youngsters for the country’s independence day, with more to be opened for Christmas too.

He said:

“It’s heartbreaking and it’s wonderful. What can you say? Those kids would have nothing if we hadn’t taken those toys over.”

Bob appealed through the Stray Ferret for help to collect toys in the summer, and said he was overwhelmed by the support he received.

It included individual donations, as well as one anonymous businessman who offered to pay to fill the lorry with toys.

Mr Frendt set off in early November with the delivery, accompanied by his wife, Maureen, and they took the lorry over the border into Ukraine.

It was his sixth trip to eastern Europe since the Russian invasion in February. The previous visits had seen him take medical equipment to help treat Ukrainians injured in the war.

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Despite being retired as a lorry driver, Mr Frendt intends to complete the trip again next year and has already begun collecting goods to take with him.

He has several hundred surgical gowns collected from another organisation that did not need them, and last week bought a mobility scooter for a soldier who has lost both of his legs.

Bob and Maureen FrendtBob and Maureen Frendt

Having bought much of it out of his own pocket, Mr Frendt is now hoping to get more support to enable him to fill his lorry again by March. He said:

“I’ve got a big bill coming for the truck – it needs new discs and pads on the front. The quote I’ve had is £630, then then MOT is £151. That’s a bill for at least £800 in February.

“I saw a picture of the guy who had lost his legs on an ordinary chair. He was desperate for a mobility scooter, so I thought, ‘right, I’ll get one’.

“My winter fuel payment has come in handy for that, but I’m dreading the gas bill. I’m going to worry about it as and when, but it leaves me with less to buy things to take with me.”

Mr Frendt is planning to organise a fundraising disco for Valentine’s Day in the hope of raising money to buy more equipment, and funding the £2,500, six-day trip to Ukraine.

Anyone who would like to donate or help him can click here to send him an email.

Knaresborough couple deliver Christmas toys for children in Ukraine

Children across Ukraine will have presents to open this Christmas thanks to the hard work of a Knaresborough couple.

Retired lorry driver Bob Frendt, who has taken five truckloads of aid to the country since Russia invaded in February, decided in the summer to collect gifts to deliver in time for Christmas.

After appealing for help through the Stray Ferret, he received numerous donations — including a generous £30,000 of toys from one anonymous benefactor. He even had to attach a trailer to his lorry to enable him to take the medical supplies he had been given by Medequip and Andway.

Mr Frendt’s wife Maureen travelled with him this time and the couple set off on Thursday, November 3.

However, their plans to hand everything over at the Polish border, as he has done on most of his previous trips, went awry. Mr Frendt said:

“I could write a 13-part series about this trip. If it could go wrong, it did.

“We actually had to go into Ukraine. We got a message on the Friday night that the guys couldn’t get out of Ukraine because there was an embargo on civilians aged 16 to 70 leaving.

“We were 30 miles from the border and it’s a case of, what do you do? I wasn’t going to turn round and bring it all back.

“Maureen wasn’t too happy about it, but it is reasonably safe to cross the border there, so that’s what we did.”

Travelling into Ukraine for only the second time allowed him to see where the medical donations would be used, in the hospital in the city of Volodymir-Volynskyi, just over the border.

The couple were also delighted to hand over the 5,000 toys ready to be distributed to children around the country, including in Kyiv, Lviv and Kherson.

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Mr Frendt was also able to present a painting of Knaresborough to a journalist he met during his last visit, who wrote about his efforts in the local paper. He also met one of the ‘activists’ fighting the Russians, Constantine, who expressed his gratitude for all the couple’s efforts. Mr Frendt said:

“Constantine said to us, ‘when this is over, you and your wife must come back as our guests and stay for a week and we’ll show you the lakes’.

“He said if we come back, they’ll make me president of Volodymir-Volynskyi and Maureen would be first lady!”

Returning to Poland, the couple met friends who put them up in a hotel for the night and took them out for dinner to thank them for what they had done.

Bob and Maureen FrendtBob and Maureen Frendt

They made it back to Knaresborough at the weekend and Mr Frendt is already planning his next trip – though not until the spring, when the weather improves and he has had a break over the winter.

He hopes to set up a family disco fundraiser to help him buy more medical equipment, alongside the donations of kit he regularly receives from companies like Andway and Medequip. He hopes to put on a raffle and it appealing for donations of prizes from local businesses.

He wants to take out defibrillators, hospital armchairs, ultrasound machines and surgical equipment, as well as the tools to maintain them. To do that, he needs more donations from the public – everything from cash to raffle prizes to tools.

He said:

“It feels like this trip was years of planning. I haven’t got an organisation behind me – all there is is me and Maureen and that’s it.

“It’s hard graft, going round and asking people if they can help. But I’ve just got to do what I can.

“The people over there have no food. They’re going to the river and filling up cans for water. The hospitals are desperate.

“It’s so difficult for us to appreciate and understand what having nothing really is.”

To support Mr Frendt’s efforts for Ukraine, or to make a donation, click here to email him.

Donor to fill Knaresborough man’s lorry with hundreds toys for Ukraine

A truck driver who has been driving lorries full of aid to Ukraine since February said he has been overwhelmed by the response to his latest appeal.

Bob Frendt, 71, has just returned from his fifth trip to eastern Europe, delivering medical equipment to help Ukrainian nationals resisting the Russian invasion.

Before setting off, he revealed plans to take hundreds of toys to the country in November, to ensure children who had had a difficult year would have something to enjoy at Christmas.

As a result of his story appearing in the Stray Ferret, Mr Frendt was contacted by an individual – who asked for his identity not to be publicised – who donated £30,000 to fill the lorry with toys.

Mr Frendt said:

“I couldn’t believe it when he got in touch and said what he was going to do. That will fill the lorry and make a difference to so many children.”

He has been offered the use of a storage unit on York Road in Knaresborough, to enable him to collect everything he needs before his trip.

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On his most recent visit, Mr Frendt entered Ukraine for the first time, having previously only reached the Polish border to pass on vital equipment to aid teams.

With a lorry full of supplies donated by local firms Medequip and Andway, he visited a hospital inside the country. He said:

“The hospital is dreadful. I met the chief executive and the head of orthopaedics. When we lifted the back door up and saw what we’d brought, they just burst into tears.

“There were 45 mattresses and they said, ‘that’s 45 people who won’t be sleeping on the floor tonight’. We took zimmer frames and they said, ‘100 people can go to the toilet on their own, without having to wait for someone to help them get there’.

“Where we went, it’s like the London slums in the early 1900s. It’s dreadful. They haven’t got inside toilets, there’s a cold water tap at the end of the road and that’s it.

“This is without the Russians invading – it’s how they live normally.”

The contribution was so valued by Ukrainians, Mr Frendt was featured in a local newspaper while he was there.

Asked by the journalist why he kept returning to help, Mr Frendt said he couldn’t give an answer, other than to say he watched the situation unfold on the news and felt he had to do something. He added:

“It’s going to go on for years. I’ve got to do whatever I can.”

The hospital in Ukraine where Bob Frendt donated equipmentThe hospital in Ukraine where Bob Frendt donated equipment

Although the anonymous donor has supplied enough toys to fill his lorry for the Christmas trip, Mr Frendt is still keen to hear from anyone who would like to support his efforts.

As well as more toys, he’s collecting old technology including laptops, tablets and mobile phones to deliver to Ukraine, and is always happy to receive financial support for the £2,500 cost of each six-day trip.

He has also been asked to deliver specialist haemostatic bandages used to treat serious wounds, which cost £40 each, and he hopes he can raise more money to pay for them.

Mr Frendt’s fundraising was boosted by the donation of a while from a Porsche which had raced at Le Mans. It was refurbished by AWR in Knaresborough and turned into a glass coffee table by Harrogate Glass Solutions.

He had planned to raffle off the unusual piece of furniture, but was made an offer he couldn’t refuse by a private collector, and the proceeds have gone towards his next Ukraine trip.

After his November visit, he plans to go again in the spring with a further lorry-load of aid, once the worst of the winter weather has eased.

To donate to Mr Frendt’s efforts, click here to send him an email.

Knaresborough man appeals for help to bring Christmas cheer to Ukraine

It may still be the height of summer but a Knaresborough man is asking people to donate Christmas presents as he prepares to travel to Ukraine for the fifth time.

Bob Frendt, 71, has already made four trips with medical supplies and other aid since the country was invaded by Russia in February.

Now, he is hoping to bring a little cheer to families still stuck in the war-torn country in time for the festive season. The retired truck driver told the Stray Ferret:

“People have been so generous up to now so I could make the trips to get supplies where they were needed.

“I took an old tour coach over earlier in the year and it’s now being used as a triage unit. It’s great because it means they can put casualties in the beds and evacuate them.

“Apparently Kylie Minogue used the coach many years ago when she was on tour — and now look where it is.”

The former tour coach is now being used as a medical triage unit.

Donations have rolled in for his previous missions, with Medequip and Andway Healthcare both contributing medical equipment and other businesses giving cash to cover the cost of the trip.

As the cost of living crisis hits the UK, however, Mr Frendt said he is struggling to get enough donations to cover petrol, tax and insurance for his next six-day trip in October.

To make up the funds, he has been collecting prizes from local businesses to raffle off, and already has vouchers and hampers from several well-known firms including Bettys, Mother Shipton’s Cave, Goldsborough Hall and Harrogate Theatre.

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The trip usually costs around £2,500 to complete – though rising costs are affecting this too. However, Mr Frendt is determined to do what he can for the volunteer army of citizens defending their country.

“The main aim this time is to take things for the kids. It will be the first Christmas for them since this began.

“I’m looking for toys particularly, but also old laptops and even solar panels and small power packs. They often have no electricity so they need ways to generate power and charge things up.

“They’re mechanics and butchers and bakers and street sweepers. They’ve been left on their own. The civilians are being looked after by all the usual aid agencies, but these guys have been left to fend for themselves.

“When I first got involved, I was talking to the commander of 204 Squadron and he said ‘we’re desperate for medical stuff’. They were using upside down brooms for crutches and people were sleeping on cardboard boxes.

“It could reduce you to tears, some of the things I’ve seen.”

To donate to Mr Frendt’s fundraising or contribute something for his next trip in early October, click here to send him an email.