EASTERTON fundraiser Jack Curran has spoken of the horrors that can still be witnessed in Kosovo, in the former Yugoslavia, from where he has just returned after taking a lorry load of aid.

Mr Curran and his colleague Frank Callanan from Faringdon left for Kosovo on September 24 in one of eight fully laden seven-and-a-half-ton trucks sent out by the charity Hope and Aid Direct as part of their Winter Life Line campaign.

Mr Curran said: "Ahead was four days of driving with very little rest, sleeping in the lorry to get to our destination, the distribution warehouse in the Kosovan capital Pristina.

"The route was across Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic into Croatia. We were afforded a police escort for the 400-plus kilometres to the Kosovan border.

"Inside Kosovo we were immediately reminded of the recent troubled past, seeing graves by the roadside and burned-out houses. Earlier this year, in a flare-up of violence, 28 people were killed and 870 injured. You have there a people divided by beliefs and past atrocities, a broken economy and 80 per cent unemployment."

Mr Curran had been contacted on August 14 to co-drive with Mr Callanan, who had raised the £2,500 needed to pay for the hire of the truck. Now all he had to do was fill it with aid.

Mr Curran's appeal on behalf of Hope and Aid Direct was launched at Easterton village fete on August bank holiday Monday by the Rev Harold Stephens, who appealed for clothing and bedding for Kosovan refugees.

In 24 days he was on his way with 3.4 tonnes of aid from local schools and other organisations.