A VOLUNTEER has said she's received an amazing response from Maldon residents to her call for donations to go to Ukrainian refugees.

Angela Malone had a busy week after receiving a message from Kamilla Wieczorek, a Polish neighbour, saying she was collecting donations for Ukrainian families organised by the Essex Polish Community.

Angela jumped to help out and set up a donation point at Christ Church in Latchingdon.

Then Mayland church set up a site, followed by St Mary's and All Saints churches in Maldon.

After this the generous woman says the donations came flooding in until her dining room was full of donations.

Kamilla had arranged a van for Saturday but the pair soon realised they were going to need a much bigger van.

Angelo put out a shout for a man with a van and was inundated with offers.

The first load of donations were driven to Chelmsford by Derek Sikorski on Saturday, ready to be sorted and put on lorries heading for Poland's border with Ukraine on Wednesday.

They should reach the border by the end of the week.

Angela doesn't want any thanks but praises everyone who has donated after the churches' appeals.

The volunteer from Latchingdon said: "We had vans going back and forth from the Maldon district churches all weekend, it’s been incredible.

"We are still collecting donations this week then we will cease as the list of needs gets less. We don’t want to overwhelm them with too much.

"We will then be encouraging people to donate money to the humanitarian agencies as this is what will help the Ukrainian people over a longer period."

She had received another dining room full of donations by Monday afternoon and managed to organise yet another volunteer van driver to take them to Chelmsford.

She added: "I put out a call at the weekend for help to transfer donations and the response I got was amazing."

Donations will be accepted at the drop off site at Christ Church on Wednesdays from 1pm until 3pm and Fridays from 8am until 5pm.