THE mayor of Liskeard has thanked all those who supported his journey to Ukraine as he and the rest of the convoy return home.
After a 3,500 mile round trip and nearly 20 hours of return travel to donate humanitarian aid, Cllr Simon Cassidy arrived back in foggy Liskeard in the early hours of this morning (February 15).
On his return, Cllr Cassidy has expressed his gratitude to all those who have supported the journey and those in Ukraine who the humanitarian aid was donated too.
Cllr Cassidy said: “Coming home is a whole bag of mixed emotions. You have a kind of survivors guilt. You run all the way across Europe and back with the adrenaline going because you want to help support these amazing people and of course you’re working alongside an amazing team that you’ve developed a really close bond with over the course of five days, but then when you get home everyone goes off in different directions to their loved ones and it’s really tough - you've faced this together, but now you’re back alone.
“It’s really difficult to explain the emotions that you feel, and I think you can only ever fully understand them if you’ve been there.
“For me every time I think of the faces I’ve seen it makes me cry, but at the same time it gives me the resolve to do as much as I possibly can to support them. They are truly amazing people who just want you to hold their hand and support them. “Huge thanks to everyone who has supported us on our journey.
“Whilst it’s really great to be back home our thoughts will always be with our Ukrainian friends - it really hurts to leave them.
“Huge thanks to Mike at Liskeard Radio for being such an amazing copilot, Darren Polly and all my fellow drivers from Cornwall & Devon sending love to Ukraine everyone who supported us on this important journey, to all the amazing volunteers at the Emporium in Callington as well as the amazing team lead by Arina over in Poland.”