Six Ukrainians who fled the horrors of war and are currently living as refugees in Poland are heading to enjoy the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool.
The six refugees will be brought over to Liverpool by Tim Johnson, an IT Consultant based in the city who travelled to Poland earlier in the war to help those fleeing over the border from Ukraine as the Russian invasion began.
Tim's partner is Polish and the two travelled there at the start of the war. They have been back many times to volunteer and have fundraised to send thousands of pounds worth of supplies over.
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Now Tim says he wants to help a number of the refugees he met over to Liverpool for what will be a huge celebration of Ukraine on the banks of the Mersey next year. Liverpool is stepping in to host the Eurovision Song Contest in May in place of Ukraine, which won this year's event.
One of the main reasons Liverpool's bid was successful was because of how it plans to fully celebrate the culture and spirit of the people of Ukraine. This is something Tim wants his friends to see after their ordeal.
He shared a message from one of the Ukrainians after he said he would bring them to Liverpool. She said: "Today is the happiest day of my life. I want to live."
Tim also thanked the owners of the Hanover Hotel in Liverpool for providing rooms for his friends at cost price, when so many other hotels in the city have hugely hiked their prices following the Eurovision announcement.
He said: "Mike and Lesley who run the hotel backed the scheme I helped set up in Poland extensively. As soon as I asked could I have the rooms they gave me their best ones at cost price. I want to thank them and show that some hotels in the city are doing the right thing."
Tim is trying to work on securing tickets for the actual Eurovision show for his Ukrainian friends, but says regardless they will be over the moon to be in the city at the time of the big event. He added: "They know tickets are not guaranteed and could be unlikely but they really want to be here. One of them said they will stand outside the event with a Ukrainian flag."
He added: "I want them to experience a small moment of joy amidst such horror."
Speaking about his time volunteering in Poland and the people he met and helped, Tim added: "The faces of the thousands of people queued up outside our aid point, the tears and sound of grief is something that I will never be able to forget ever.
"We had an amazing team (in Poland), they are literally the best people you could ever meet in life. We kept each other going as some days there was not a dry eye between us all."
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