Sighisoara - weather check

After a drop at Sfantu Gheorge we'll be stopping here with more aid for another orphanage...

link to live webcam

Yorkshire Evening Post 12th FEB

Leeds mercy mission to Romania

Published Date: 12 February 2010

Much-needed medical equipment destined for Romania has been given for a £2m convoy leaving Yorkshire.

Spire Leeds Hospital, based in Roundhay, Leeds, has given the supplies to help Romanian children's homes, schools, and a hospital in Transylvania.

They will be part of the annual Yorkshire Aid Convoy which leaves for the country on March 1.

Five trucks full of goods, including clothes and furniture donated by Yorkshire companies and organisations, will make the 3,500km trip over

nine days to deliver almost £2m-worth of supplies.

Judith High, physiotherapist manager at Spire Leeds Hospital, has collected items over the past year to go to in the convoy, including bandages, crutches, nebulisers and resuscitation equipment.

The hospital has also donated televisions, furniture and surplus equipment from the wards which became available when facilities were upgraded.

She said it was the second year running that the hospital had donated goods.

She added: "We are really pleased to get involved in this great cause. Yorkshire Aid Convoy is a local charity and it's one that targets medical supplies that are in great need due to the poorly equipped hospitals and the state of health care in Romania."

Leeds businessman Mark Murphy founded Yorkshire Aid Convoy, a registered charity, in April 2002.

He said: "We are staffed by volunteers who even pay their own expenses to make the trip, this ensures that one hundred per cent of aid donations goes directly to people in need.

"We are grateful for the help from Spire because the hospitals in Romania have very basic equipment and the doctors there are doing the best they can with what they have available.

"We are pleased we can help out with the items they are desperately short of and Spire makes that possible."

The staff at Spire Leeds also recently donated £1,000 to the Leeds General Infirmary heart research fund and have raised funds for software to enable old heart scans to be transferred onto CDs to allow comparison with new scan results.

Link to story here

Story in Yorkshire Post

Counterfeit clothing helps thousands of poor

Published Date: 22 February 2010

By Fiona Evans

Counterfeit clothing and footwear is to be donated to a Leeds-based charity after being seized by West Yorkshire Trading Standards. It is due to hand over the goods to Yorkshire Aid Convoy (YAC) this week.

Trading standards chief officer Graham Hebblethwaite said: "The production of counterfeit goods has a negative impact on both legitimate businesses and consumers alike. By making these donations to Yorkshire Aid Convoy it is wonderful to know that, in instances such as these, the illegal practice of counterfeiting goods can be utilised in a positive and beneficial way, by easing the burdens of those who are most in need."

The service regularly seizes counterfeit clothing with copies of sportswear brands appearing on items from T-shirts to tracksuit bottoms.

It is keen to see the articles of clothing help people rather than ending up in landfill sites The clothing and footwear is destined to be used to help the poor and needy throughout Romania and the Ukraine.

YAC trustee Mark Murphy said: "Yorkshire Aid Convoy has been able to clothe literally thousands of poor and needy people in Romania and the Ukraine through our charity links.

He said that trading standards' ability to donate clothing fit for re-use has been invaluable over many years. "Their continued support is very much appreciated." The charity, based at Grape Street in Leeds, was founded by entrepreneur Mark Murphy in an effort to relieve world-wide poverty, sickness, suffering and distress through the collection and distribution of humanitarian aid.

Chair of the West Yorkshire Joint Services Committee, which oversees the work of trading standards, Coun Neil Taggart said: "While it is fantastic that trading standards can work closely with charities to make such contributions, consumers should be on-guard when considering buying items that they suspect to be counterfeit products.

"Those involved in the production of counterfeit goods are often involved in other serious criminal activity. If you have any suspicions, I would urge you to contact Consumer Direct on 08454 040506." The service made six donations to YAC in the last four years.

Link to story here

Truck No. 3

Here you can see some of the third truck being loaded (one of the smaller 7.5ton vehicles) and when we had finished it was right on the money as far as the weight goes!!

This load consists of bicycles, clothing, computers, televisions, furniture as well as medical supplies.

We will be taking this truck to the home of Dracula in the heart of Transylvania, Sighisoara.

Remember to take some garlic with you lads!!

The Load begins

We have finally begun the long process of loading the trucks with all the goods that have been kindly donated. It is a long process with all the trucks having to be checked to ensure that all the weights are within legal limits, both overall and on each axle.




You can see Charlie & Terry's truck being loaded with paint, clothing, hospital beds and equipment, not to mention an enormous amount of clothing.

Gary & Andrew's smaller truck was also loaded earlier with has been filled with bicycles, over 1000 teddy bears as well as furniture and computer equipment.

I think it's full lads, I don,t think we can get anything else in!

You can see that we do not laeve any space spare,
we really do FILL them to the top!!! It is amazing to think that this truck has just weighed in at over 20tons!!!

Only another 45tons to go and the other 3 trucks will be loaded ready for the off in just 10 days time.

Truck allocation

26 TON KS57 UBE Mark & Graham

26 TON KS57 UBV Jamie & Terry

26 TON KR57 UDG Charlie & Terry

7.5 TON BV57 OHO Guy & Ian

7.5 TON BV57 OHL Gary & Andrew

To Romania with love from Leeds - feature on BBC website

I've been going to Romania since 1989 when I was in

volved with the Convoy of Hope, a disaster relief organisation.

It was my financial advisor at the time that first got me involved in this charity work.

Then in 2002, Simon Hartley and I, both businessman from Leeds set up our own charity, Yorkshire Aid Convoy, providing humanitarian aid to eastern Europe.

I have no particular link with Romania but I just had to help.

One vivid memory that sticks in my mind was getting invited to the opening of a new Romanian school.

Several things about that visit shocked me, one was the school was being opened before it was finished, but the other was seeing a pair of shoes on a step. When I looked round I saw a lot of children playing barefoot in the road, which was really just muck rather than a proper road. I was then told it wasn't their day to wear the shoes.

When you've seen something like that you just have to help.

Great support

We are sending our next convoy to Romania in March with goods worth £2m loaded in five lorries. We are sending three, large, 26-ton vehicles and two smaller lorries.

Our convoy often contains ordinary stuff that we in Leeds might take for granted. Our organisation is very lucky to get some great support from companies donating materials we can put to good use.

On the ground we link up with a local Romanian charity, called Caritas, that decides how to distribute the aid. We take convoys to Ukraine too and link with similar local charities.

I would have stopped

Over the last few years raising the donations has been getting harder but this year we've done fantastically. It really seems that people dig deeper when they've got less themselves.

I just have to keep the convoys going, because if you pulled out, where is that £2m of help going to come from? To be honest, I would have stopped but it's difficult when the donations continue coming in. After all we are only giving time and a bit of money.

The volunteers we have involved with driving the convoy can all afford to do it, because we charge people to go. They actually pay £1,000 to come along and drive across Europe for nine days.

So it's not cheap but it pays for vehicle hire, fuel, ferry costs, tolls and accommodation. In fact £1,000 is a bit steep but with any money is left over after our expenses we are hoping to pay off a sum of money still owing on a new vehicle being used by Caritas.

We are next leaving Leeds on Monday, 1 March and sailing, via Hull, for Sfantu Gheorghe in Transylvania, Romania on our next trip. We aim to be home on Tuesday, 9 March 2010. In all it will be a 4,500 kilometre round trip.

Mark Murphy

Link to BBC website

Pre flight training

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Keeping warm

Dont worry you will always have your co-driver to keep you warm !!!!

Brass-ov monkeys!!!!

Ooh, looks a bit chilly in Romania at the moment, let's hope it warms up a bit in the next few weeks!!


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Location:Church St,Goldsborough,United Kingdom