2023-07-09 18:14:07
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Marcus Wells retired from his bakery business to devote himself to volunteering for refugees
Article informationAuthor, James RogersonRole, BBC News
2 hours ago
A British baker has helped more than 300 refugees flee Ukraine since the start of the war there in February 2022.
It all began when Marcus Wells, 60, helped refugees move into homes in the UK. But now that sponsorship numbers are down, he is helping them travel to Denmark.
Wells uses his connections to charities that help fund refugee trips to Denmark, and he himself has made several relief trips.
“I felt drawn to supporting them in every way I could,” said Wells, who lives in Bristol.
Wells worked at The Breadstore in Gloucester Street for 18 years before he and his wife set up a food supply company in 2015 to supply bread and cake to refugees at the camp known as The Jungle, in Calais, France, and the Refugee Community Kitchen in Dunkirk. Through the “Aid Box” convoy.
But the couple sold the company and went into volunteer work with Fair Share in Bristol, as well as continuing their work helping asylum seekers awaiting the outcome of their claims in France.
“I think just knowing that all these people on the doorstep of the UK want to get in here made me feel a lot,” Marcus Wells said.
He added, “The story of those who were displaced from their homelands for various reasons always leaves a deep impression on me.”
He stressed that this feeling is very strong “while helping to transport Ukrainians and seeing them carry all their belongings in a suitcase.”
Nearly ten million refugees have moved from Ukraine to Poland since the start of the war in February 2022, in addition to receiving more than 100,000 Ukrainians in the UK under the Homes for Ukraine programme.
Last May, Wells and his assistant took a friend’s minibus thousands of miles away, ferrying more than a ton of aid to Warsaw, Poland, before dropping off 12 refugees there.
Indeed, they helped the group travel to Sandholm, near Copenhagen, before returning to Warsaw via Copenhagen and Hamburg to deliver more aid and then making the same journey three more times.
The British baker added: “I still feel as if something is pulling me towards doing it. Maybe it’s my personality – if I know there’s work to be done, I can’t ignore it.”
“I think my family thinks I’m a little crazy,” he continued.
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Nearly ten million Ukrainians have immigrated to Poland since the beginning of the conflict in February 2022
One of the people Wells helped get from Poland to Denmark was Roman Timchenko, a 36-year-old crane driver from Cherkasy in central Ukraine.
Timchenko was one of the group that boarded the bus with his wife, Natalia, their three children, two middle-aged women, and four men between the ages of 60 and 62.
Martial law is still in effect in Ukraine, which means that men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the country until they have taken part in the fighting.
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Roman Timchenko is one of those Wells helped get his family to Copenhagen
But Timchenko managed to get an exception to that rule, as men with three children under the age of 18 are allowed to leave.
The man obtained this exemption after he had already fought for more than a year in various locations, including Maryanka, Nevsky and Bakhmut.
Bakhmut is one of the areas that witnessed the fiercest battles since the beginning of the war, as thousands of forces belonging to both sides of the conflict were killed.
The Ukrainian refugee said: “I have never seen anything like this in my life. I saw a tank aiming its artillery in my direction, 200 meters away.”
He added, “For weeks, we were passing through dead bodies, we were subjected to rocket fire and we exchanged fire while the shelling continued, I think I am lucky that I survived all of that.”
And he continued, “This is an opportunity for me to give my children a better life. I hope that we will live a happy life from now on.”
Timchenko’s daughter, Erna, turned four on the day the family traveled to Denmark.
Wells bought her a teddy bear on the ferry to Denmark and the convoy celebrated her birthday and everyone ate sweets.
Oksana Ledovskaya, 45, from Kramatorsk in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, was one of the refugees who boarded the bus with Wells.
“It was a terrifying scene in Kramatorsk in February 2022,” Oksana said.
She added, “When the bombing started, I was in a supermarket where a bomb fell nearby and all the windows of the shop were shattered and people fell to the ground.”
“The last few months have been difficult, especially after my father passed away. Although trying to visit him was terrifying, I tried to do it.”
And she continued: “Now in Denmark I am trying to find a job and I want to enjoy life again, but it is difficult for me to be away from my hometown.”
Bread for donations
After trips to transport refugees and aid, the money that Wells was using in these works ran out, which prompted the man to think of other ways of financing in order to continue his voluntary transfers.
And the way he came up with it was to make and sell black Ukrainian sourdough bread.
He said: “I asked the residents of the neighborhood if they would like to get a loaf in exchange for a donation of 2.50 pounds sterling to my (Go Fund Me) page, and then we deduct this amount from the price of the loaf.”
“The money raised goes directly to transporting people from Ukraine to Copenhagen,” he added.
Thanks to what he’s doing and “a donation from a very generous person”, he says, Wells has recently made enough for five more trips.
Despite the difference that the British baker makes in the lives of many, he always underestimates the importance of this role he plays in helping refugees.
“The bus is the real hero,” Wells says. “I don’t feel proud, I just feel happy for what I’m doing.”
He added, “I think that the thing that I feel when I help people without expecting anything in return is what resonates with them the most.”
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