Volunteers in Ukraine have thanked the people of Reading for donating almost 100,000 life-saving items since the conflict began.

Community Champion Ronnie Goodberry, from Woodley, has driven several appeals for the war-torn country, with his most recent raising 24,000 donations – despite the cost of living crisis at home.

He and another volunteer from of his group, Woodley Volunteer's for Our Community, will travel 1,900 miles with a van packed with resources for Ukrainians, who have been the victim of recent Russian attacks on energy infrastructure as the winter sets in.

“We’ve just had an overwhelming response, it has been brilliant,” said Mr Goodberry, who set up the community group during Covid.

“To be honest I wasn’t expecting very much. I didn’t think we were going to get anywhere near as much as we have.

“We’ve even had to go and get a bigger vehicle because we have got so much stuff.

“I mean it’s going to incur us extra costs but who cares? They need it, and the people of Reading and Woodley and Wokingham have done it again.”

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Mr Goodberry is set to leave for Ukraine in the early hours of Tuesday, December 13, to meet a Polish and Ukrainian volunteer group on the border.

He hopes to take the supplies as far as possible into Ukraine with the assistance of the group, who told him Reading’s generosity has been “life-saving.”

Mr Goodberry said: “We have every intention of going in. Obviously it’s down to the intelligence on the day. If they say it’s too dangerous then we can’t go.”

“I’d be stupid if I wasn’t a bit apprehensive and scared. Because you don’t know what you are going into.

“But we’re meeting the challenge as we always do and we will get the job done.”

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Whether or not he delivers them himself, the donations – everything from blankets to battery – will make it to civilians, doctors and nurses in Ukraine via networks of support groups in and around the country.

A giant Cookie Monster will be travelling with Mr Goodberry, which he bought specially for a Ukranian child he met on his last trip to the country.

Mr Goodberry renewed the appeal for donations on November 18, after a volunteer on the Ukrainian border told him hospitals in Kherson have been left without electricity and families are freezing as winter sets in after Russia bombarded power and water supplies.

“It’s a fantastic thing that Woodley and Reading people have done.

“It’s been a great response.”