Caring staff launch Easter appeal for desperate families in war-torn Ukraine

Staff at a care home have launched an Easter appeal to raise money for desperate families in war-torn Ukraine.

The team at Pendine Park’s Hillbury Care Home is running an Easter raffle and a Name the Teddy Bear competition in aid of the Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal.

Manager Cindy Clutton said it was unbearable to think that care homes in Ukraine are being decimated by Russian bombing.

She said everyone connected with Pendine Park is horrified by news reports on the suffering of so many innocent civilians.

Cindy said: “With Easter approaching we all agreed it was the right thing to get behind this urgent appeal.

“We see daily reports of innocent civilians suffering no end of horrors. Ordinary lives have been ripped apart by this senseless war. It has affected everyone from tiny babies to elderly grandmothers. It’s tortuous to see this happening in the 21st century.”

Red Cross

Cindy who has worked in the care sector for more than 25 years said Hillbury residents, their families and care home staff all wanted to do something to help the Red Cross humanitarian campaign.

She said: “It is awful to think that in Ukraine there will be care homes just like ours, but many of them will have been bombed and destroyed, leaving the elderly and vulnerable residents injured and homeless. They no longer have a safe haven.

“We just had to do something to help.”

Cindy and deputy manager Patsy Swift, decided to run a series of Easter events in aid of the international appeal and they were delighted when a number of fellow staff and family members of Hillbury residents generously donated Easter eggs to be raffled off.

Patsy said: “Cindy has done a fantastic job arranging some of the eggs and sweet treats into chocolate bouquets and Easter hampers complete with big colourful bows. They make great raffle prizes and the raffle tickets have been selling like hot cakes.”

The pair also sourced a bumper sized teddy bear dressed in a blue jumper and they have organised a competition to name the cute bear. With tickets at £2 a go, the eventual winner will get to take home the giant cuddly toy.

Patsy said: “The name is hidden in a golden envelope which came with the bear, but no one knows what it is. We plan to open it over the Easter weekend.”

She said the care home residents are delighted with the teddy bear and raffle display which is in the home’s community lounge against a backcloth of bunting and balloons in the yellow and blue colours of the Ukrainian flag.

For the duration of their Easter appeal Cindy and Patsy are accepting donations at the Hillbury Care Home but they are also urging people to support the Red Cross appeal in any other ways they can.

Cindy said: “They could organise their own fundraising events similar to the kind that we are doing or just donate directly at the Ukraine Crisis Appeal website.

“The important thing is to give whatever you can. It is terrible to know that people are suffering day and night through this brutal Russian onslaught.”