A Welsh couple travels to Ukraine in a minibus loaded with supplies.

When you think about your retirement, do you picture yourself on the beach sipping bottomless cocktails? Perhaps you can see yourself cycling through the south of France? Or do you just like to relax on the couch while watching TV during the day?

Or maybe your ideal retirement involves loading up a van with dog food and medicine and driving it to the Ukrainian border? That’s what retiree Chris Stowell, 68, and his wife, Heather Stowell, 61, do.

The couple from Koelbren, near Istrajinle, are making their third trip to bring in resources to help people fleeing Ukraine, but their first to cross the border. Do they care about your safety? No, said Heather. “You’re going to die one day, aren’t you?” he said. “This is not bravery, everyone is going to die, it is a natural process. You can die doing what you believe in.”

Read more: Nursing and ambulance unions call off strike in Wales after Welsh government pay offer

Heather admitted that “the family thinks we’re crazy” for doing this, but that doesn’t lessen their confidence in their decision to leave. The first trip was in April and May 2022, the second – in September, and they plan the third in 2023, when they will come to Ukraine itself and do “whatever they want from us”.

The couple have some sobering and shocking stories from their first travels. Chris said: “The first time we went, we went to Poland. We didn’t know anyone there, but we were given several addresses. The main place we were told to go to was a big supermarket with small stores around it, but there were no stores there when we went.

“It became a refugee center with about 600 beds, not far from where refugees crossed the border. They were processed from whatever country they applied for… they could eat, they were offered as much as they wanted.

“99% of the people were women with children and a suitcase, that’s all they had left, it was their life. They didn’t know where they came from, where they were going, what was going on. They were accompanied by animals and an elderly couple. It was very sad to see in our time that hundreds and hundreds of people have nothing.

Chris described how refugees would be processed by representatives from various countries, including Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, France and the UK, with buses taking them to the countries where they sought asylum.

While there, they noticed many other people doing more or less the same thing, driving to help in some way. They didn’t meet anyone else from Wales, but they did meet people from all over the world including France, Holland and China. Chris added: “These people give their lives even though they have a job to help save people.

“We even met some Russian soldiers who were nice and didn’t believe in fighting, so they helped out at the refugee centre. Of course, they can’t go back because they’ll be killed.”

Heather and Chris brought pet food, bedding and bowls, as well as human food, medicine, clothing, blankets and anything else people were willing to donate. They even brought new boots for the Ukrainian soldiers thanks to a generous donation from a neighbor, saying all their neighbors in Koelbren were “absolutely brilliant”, raising money, donating goods and generally supporting the trip.

The two rely on donations to fund things like gas, ferries, and refueling while they’re there, but most of their supplies come from direct donations. Big donations, like the 60 bags of dog biscuits given to them by Pero Foods in Betws and Coed, make a big difference.

Helping animals is a big part of what Chris and Heather do on their trips to the frontier, and they remember a great story. Chris said: “We heard about a woman and her children who were sent to Frankfurt. The children had a cat and through contacts someone found the kitten, then they took it to the rescue center, then the girl came from the rescue center in Ukraine to the warehouse where we were

“We kept the cat overnight, so another person who collected people and animals picked up the kitten and brought it back to Germany to be reunited with its family. About four or five different people came together to retrieve this cat. There are a lot of people doing the same thing.”

Heather added: “It’s a family that seems to be working, bringing people together through a long chain, getting things from A to B. There are a lot of people who have been there from day one and have just left. There is electricity. , there are people who make firewood for us to cook and eat. They are trying to build shelters and kennels… everyone is doing little things they can do and it all adds up to something big.”

However, it is never easy. Chris said: “At the border we met a lot of people coming from Ukraine, girls getting out in vans to pick up things they could take back, risking their lives. We met a girl who said that when the Russians attacked her village, most of the villagers prepared Molotov cocktails in their gardens to throw at the Russian tanks.

“He would go straight back to Donbass, take some of the things we bought and make lists of things people needed. We met a few other girls who did the same, but not all of them spoke English.

Heather noted: “Putin could learn a lot from these people.” Heather herself is disabled and has back problems, but said that when she was “sitting in bed all day watching the news” she decided she “couldn’t sit here and watch them and do nothing”.

After “lots of painkillers and clearance from the doctors” who still didn’t want to advise her to travel, Heather started planning a third trip. Converted from a van to a minibus, Heather and Chris hope to leave in March if they receive enough donations in time. Heather said some people are less willing to help now than they were at the start of the conflict, but the couple have already secured a pallet of dog food from United Pet Food, organized by their friend Steve Boyd, which Heather says the couple are “very grateful”. .”

If you feel you can help Heather and Chris with a donation, please get in touch through their Facebook page. They also sell advertising space on their vehicles and solicit direct donations through GoFundMe.

Read more:

• The only place with a real Santa – Howells Generations – Memories of those who worked and shopped there

• Posthumous tributes to Welsh politician’s ‘gentle and wise’ son

• After a human prank, the tourist office was tricked into thinking that the Italian landmark is in Dolyny

• A Welsh school took special measures after inspectors found that children spoke too much English

• Five new train stations are planned on a major railway in south Wales to alleviate congestion on the M4