We’ve all been absolutely horrified by the news coming out of Ukraine over the last couple of weeks.

Our Wednesday lunchtime presenter Bob Simpson has been highlighting the efforts being undertaken locally to assist the humanitarian crisis unfolding at the moment, both on his radio show and our website.

Bob interviewed Caroline Stillwell who has been involved in a local campaign to send a container load of essential supplies to the Polish/Ukrainian border.

Bob has also highlighted Steve from Boxers Barbers in Wickford, who is taking two trucks of essential supplies to Ukraine this week.

Alex and Karen are collecting at Merrymeade Tearooms in Sawyers Hall Lane, Brentwood – they’re particularly looking for first aid equipment and painkillers.

The Chequers Pub in Billericay started a collection point for essentials earlier this week. They published a list of items needed and were immediately overwhelmed with the response.

And Phil Bradley of Billericay Dogs is arranging a collection of pet food and is shipping supplies over.

Bob has been doing a great job highlighting charitable campaigns on air – we were both involved in the Boots 2 Africa campaigns a while back.  You can be sure that he will continue to broadcast as much information as possible about local campaigns to help people during this terrible time.

All of the information – and Bob’s interview with Caroline – can be heard again at phoenixfm.com.