A Wrexham-based charity has recorded the last 365 days of work they have done since war broke out in Ukraine.

Today (Friday, 24 February) marks a whole year of war in Ukraine, and Teams4U has been working hard to provide aid and support to those affected.

In that time, Teams4U has made numerous 1,715 mile trips transporting tonnes of aid to the Romanian/Ukraine border city of Suceav. They sent two trucks of hospital beds shipped far into Ukraine health facilities, and they helped to build a toilet block in an orphanage in Chernivtsi.

Teams4U, who run the annual Shoebox appeal nationwide, saw their warehouses across the country become full of donations and aid thanks to the generosity of their supporters and the community, and some shoeboxes were sent to the children affected by the war in Ukraine.

Financial donations also meant that thousands of families and children have been supported with food parcels throughout Ukraine, as well as refugees crossing into Romania and Moldova.

The Teams4U team said that the war didn’t feel close “but the community did”, and they remember a 12-year-old boy who came in with a bag of two footballs from his garden, and a woman drove from Wolverhampton because she had seen the appeal and wanted to help. Teams4U said that the appeal gained so much attention that they were having to turn people away.

READ MORE: 'Wrexham’s amazing' - Donations now on the road to Poland to help Ukrainian refugees

Simon Cooke, of Teams4U, said: "I don't think anybody saw the conflict lasting as long as it has when it first started and now we also don't see an end in sight.

"The resilience I have seen from the Ukrainians I have met this last year has been amazing.

"I've spoken to people from all walks of life from students, teachers, priests, farmers, mechanics and majors and they all have unwavering belief that they will win the war.

"Whilst I was over in January I saw the realities again up close, having to distribute gifts in a school bomb shelter as the air raid siren was sounding and being there for the funeral of a former footballer now 'war hero'. You realise everyone is affected.

"Everyone has lost a family member or friend. The work we do also wouldn't be possible without the support of the local community and we appreciate any continued support we receive."

47 DAYS 

Some members of the team went to the Siret border, where the “devastation of war is clearly known” and suddenly the war felt much closer. Just before they arrived, 8,000 women and children had crossed over the same border fleeing war, and 18,843,973 people had fled Ukraine and were spread across Europe.

Teams4U says that over 10,500,000 of those have now gone back, but separately, more than 7,000,000 remain internally displaced. 

The visit took them to Suceava, where donations were sent to the front line by volunteers carrying out the dangerous work.

A ‘free shop’ for refugees stocked with the donations was set up by a local, and Teams4U visited an orphanage for children with disabilities for the first time. Before the war, it held 10 children but at this time there were 42, and no extra staff to help.

READ MORE: 'Horrific' situation - Wrexham charity Teams4U makes 'eye-opening' trip to Ukraine

120 DAYS

Simon and Dave Cooke returned to the orphanage with staff from Great Ormond Street Hospital to help plan what was needed, including working with medical professionals and a new shower block.

141 DAYS

A BBC film crew joined them on their next visit to the orphanage. They also went to Chernivtsi, which is hundreds of miles from the front line and almost untouched by the war.

To support the aid getting to where it is needed Teams4U purchased another Transit van in Romania, which had been loaded with donated body bags and showed them the further realities of war.

335 DAYS 

Simon travelled to meet a man called Vova who had previously visited Wrexham in November and requested shoeboxes for displaced children from the Mariupol region. Teams4U also gave shoeboxes out to children in a bomb shelter as it wasn’t safe anywhere else.

READ MORE: Shoeboxes hand delivered to children in Romania brings Christmas joy

On the way back from Lviv, driving through the Carpathian Mountain, their translator, Dasha told Simon: “We have come to terms that we could die anytime and every day is a gift.” They have all said “goodbye” to their life already.

365 DAYS

Teams4u are continually raising awareness of the need in Ukraine and is continuing to send financial support to their partners to deliver aid locally. During the shoebox campaign, they still collected aid for Ukraine to be sent out early in the new year and continue to do so.