The Leicestershire mum and her heartfelt mission for the children of Ukraine
One woman has a special way of welcoming young refugees into the county
A mum from Leicestershire has been busy collecting teddy bears to send to children in Ukraine and to the young refugees arriving in the county.
43-year-old Maria Ranger-Holt says she will have distributed over 100 teddy bears, both at local host meetings and to the Ukrainian border.
"... a young boy, at first he was nervous to go and collect a bear, but once he had got the actual bear he didn't let it go for the whole group meeting. So that made me really happy to know that", she said.
Something to be proud of
Maria, who has a son of her own, dedicates her entire mission her own mum, Zirka, who had Ukrainian heritage.
She says Zirka - which stands for 'star' in Ukraine - would have been proud to see her and the wider community pull together to help out the refugees in their time of need.
'I think it would be really special for her to see what the whole community is doing. She was really proud of her Ukrainian roots, so I think it would be really special for her to see what everybody is doing to help these people', Maria said.
'It's named after my mum, and it's for her - I've started doing the bears in her memory.'
'She passed away 25 years ago this year. She has a special photograph that I've used of her cuddling a bear when she was a small child.'