Wembdon couple drive to Ukraine to deliver sweets to children

Paul Cotterell and his wife Dawn , from Wembdon, will be travelling to the Polish city of Przemysl on Tuesday, May 17, to distribute the donations.

He said: “We actually bought the sweet cart for Dawn’s son’s wedding just before lockdown and it was idle until last September/October.

“We decided to make use of it and go to wedding fairs to see if any couples would like a sweet cart, there has been a fair bit of interest although weddings are booked a long time in advance.

“When we got to the wedding fair we set up our cart and we could see the smiles on the kids and also on the adults’ faces and we thought ‘that’s what we want to do’.”

A photo showing the sweets collected by the Cotterells

Mr Cotterell said that as a family they “just wanted to do our bit” in helping Ukraine and this is how it all started.

He has also explained how they received donations from across the county and from as far as Gibraltar.

He added: “We will visit a reception centre in Przemysl and give some of the sweets to children, we will hand over the remainder of the sweets to volunteers to distribute to the children.

“Our venture has been put together by family, and we have received donations from Enosis event in Wells and as far away as Gibraltar, The Little Bay Restaurant in Gibraltar has also donated and supported us.

“We have a GoFundMe page and would like to ask for the public to donate and share our story, everyone donating will be put into our free draw to win a Sweet Platter. 

“The draw will take place on our return from Poland, to add to our sweet cones we have attached a label, on one side it reads ‘With Love’ on the other would be the name of the person/s, companies donate, for example, a £1 donation they would have one label, £2 they would have two labels.”

Paul and Dawn Cotterell would like to thank Wells-based Enosis Events and The Little Bay Restaurant in Gibraltar for their donations.

The GoFundMe page can be found here.