Ukraine 22 days waiting....22 days of hell

My name is Lauren Corbishley and I am a nurse with the NHS.

Almost 4 weeks ago I met the most wondering family who had fled from Kharkiv after the Russians destroyed everything they had.

18 very long days ago we applied for the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship to try and get them here...18 days later, we are still waiting.

My beautiful Yuliia, Glib and 17-year-old daughter Maryna, and their two Husky dogs have been stranded in Poland and myself and my husband Ian and I have been footing their hotel using our credit cards. We have funded approximately £1000 to keep them safe. We did this as we were told that we would be granted Visas within 5 days of application but as you are all too aware this Government has failed to deliver this and we have not heard a single thing since we applied on March 18th.

I've had numerous heartbreaking calls to the Helpline and Home Office and even had one person hang the phone up on me.

We are in despair as the money runs out to fund their accommodation on Friday if this disgraceful Government does not issue their visas.

I am struggling to understand why I am seeing visas granted for others who applied after we did on the day it opened and all I am told is wait... wait.... wait... meanwhile, our family's wellbeing suffers. We have two beautiful spare rooms waiting for them, and all we want to do is get them here.

I appeared on BBC Spotlight Devon on Monday 4th April to share my story and have had several amazing people make contact with me wanting to help.

I also appeared in two articles over the weekend in the Daily Telegraph to highlight the issues we face with our story.

You will find the video and articles by accessing my Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/lauren.corbishley1

So I have decided to start a GoFundMe page so that those who want to help Yuliia and her gorgeous family keep safe while we WAIT and to help get them here can contribute directly. Any funds raised her will be used to continue to pay their accommodation costs directly and then will be kept for them to help rebuild their lives when the arrive in the UK. The funds will be transferred to my bank account and then will be given to them directly by me.

I've been truly blown over by the kindness of people both in my community and beyond, and I cannot thank you enough.

Lauren, Yuliia, Maryna & Glib