Scooter donated to 72-year-old Ukrainian refugee

Iuliia Chiritoi (left) was joined in the UK by her mother Olga Tatarenko in March

A 72-year-old Ukrainian refugee who struggles to walk has been given a mobility scooter by local Rotary clubs.

Olga Tatarenko travelled for three days from a small town near Kharkiv at the beginning of March to join her daughter Iuliia Chiritoi in Rushden, Northamptonshire.

But the refugee struggles to walk as she is waiting for a knee replacement and would "stay indoors most of the time", her daughter said.

Now that three Rotary clubs in east Northants have donated the scooter it will "help her to get around, to not be isolated and to meet people", Ms Chiritoi said.

Ms Tatarenko travelled from her home in Krasnograd, north-east Ukraine, spending 28 hours on trains and taking two flights to make it to the UK.

Her home town is in the Kharkiv region, which was one of the first areas attacked following the Russian invasion.

'A little miracle'

After she left Ukraine her neighbours were killed in Russian missile strikes, which also damaged her house.

Ms Chiritoi said when her mother arrived in the UK she was "very isolated because it was very difficult for her to walk".

Olga Tatarenko said she looking forward to going to the park and the local shops

With her daughter translating, Ms Tatarenko said she was looking forward to "just the small things like buying bread and milk".

She said it was "overwhelming" to receive the scooter and she "never thought something like this would happen; it was a little miracle".

Ms Tatarenko said she wanted to go the park and was "really looking forward to picking up her granddaughter from school".

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David Kendrick, from the Rotary Club of Rushden Chichele, said: "It is lovely to give to people who are deserving of something which they otherwise wouldn't be able to get."

He said in the Anglia region, which includes Northamptonshire, Rotary Clubs had donated £150,000 to causes in Ukraine and a further £75,000 to help refugees from the war.