Man follows dad’s World War II example by helping restore power for …
A man whose father rebuilt bomb-damaged houses in London after the Blitz is now helping stricken Ukrainians get back on their feet. John Williams, 86, is repairing old generators free of charge to send to Kyiv.
The latest consignment of generators has been delivered to a property in Wrexham[1] and will be taken by lorry to Ukraine next week.
Mr Williams, of J T Williams Tool Hire in Ruthin[2], told North Wales Live: “I’m 86. I’m old enough to know that, during the war, we were just fortunate that Hitler did not land in this country or we would be facing exactly the same as what the Ukrainian people are facing now.
“My father was in a reserved occupation – a joiner – during the Blitz. He was repairing houses when the rockets came over.
“I just felt strongly about it and wanted to help the people in similar circumstances too.”
John Williams with some of the generators he is repairing to send to Ukraine (Image: John Williams)
Volunteer Paula Sells, who has been working with Mr Williams. explained how she and her husband Robert launched the appeal for generators.
She said: “At Christmas, we had had a generator we were going to sell but, after seeing the images of Ukraine, and imagining what it must be like living there, we decided to send it there.
“We found Teams 4 U (T4U), an international charity originally founded in Wrexham, who were willing to include our generators in their Sprinter van taking aid to Ukraine.”
Retired immunologist Mrs Sells and her husband, who is a retired professor of surgery, appealed for generators and met with a “heartwarming” response.
Denbigh vet Trevor Pritchard has donated six generators for Ukrainians without power (Image: Paula Sells)
Donations came in from Mr Williams, RAF cadets in Mold and others. Mrs Sells said Mr Williams’ six generators plus seven more will be taken by lorry to Kyiv and to eastern Ukraine next week. They include six brand new 3800kW generators donated by Trevor Pritchard, a Denbigh vet.
The T4U driver – a farmer from Mariupol who lost his land, machinery and the contents of his house to the Russians – has already made over a dozen aid trips to his homeland.
Mrs Sells described some of the people who have benefited from the generators. She said: “They included two families with nine children living four kilometres from the front line. They had no car so couldn’t move away, no power and most of the houses had been destroyed.
“Another was a woman who said: ‘Now the whole street can use this generator to charge their mobile phones and have some light.’ All were extremely grateful.”
She said the details of the war heard from Ukrainians have been sobering. Mrs Sells said: “Children fill empty soup cans with wax to make candles for civilians living underground. Women knit mittens for soldiers with not just a separate thumb but a forefinger too – for pulling a trigger.
“A child I know wears a Spiderman costume constantly. His mother told me that he’d realised that neither the army or the police had been able to stop the Russian invasion of his town, so he puts all his faith in his heroes to come to the rescue. He is six years old.”
* Anyone with a generator to donate can call Paula Sells on 07778 406430 or John Williams on 01824 702268.