“WE were living a quiet, peaceful life. Until the day it happened, we didn’t think Russia would really attack. Then I woke up one morning and saw it on my phone. It was happening. I was terrified.”
Halyna Protsyshyn recalls the day her life changed forever, when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. “My daughter was at university, I called her in a panic and told her to come home. We were very scared,” says Halyna. “There were sirens going off - the war was getting closer every day.”
At the same time, Pam Leadbeater was watching the TV news at her home in Harden. “I thought: ‘We must be able to do something’. Our sons have left home and we have plenty of space. I just wanted to help,” she says.
Pam contacted Sunflower Sisters, which supports families arriving in the UK from Ukraine. The organisation was helping to find sponsors and accommodation, as well as working with evacuation teams in Ukraine and Poland and co-ordinating delivery of humanitarian aid.
“Sunflower Sisters are incredible,” says Pam. “They set up to help women refugees and families, when there were concerns about trafficking and exploitation. They’ve dealt with some terrible crises. They establish hubs in different areas, match up families and help with transport and visa applications.”
Through Sunflower Sisters, Pam put a post on Facebook - and Halyna responded. “She wrote just three words: ‘I am interested’. It went from there,” says Pam.
After leaving their home in Ternopil, west Ukraine, Halyna, her son Roman, 11, and daughter Olha, 22, travelled to Poland, staying with friends for several weeks. “I noticed something on Facebook about a housing programme in Britain. I saw a photo of a smiling family, I had a feeling that they were good people,” says Halyna.
At the end of April last year - five weeks after responding to the Facebook post - Halyna and Roman arrived at Pam’s home. Olha came over in October. There had been complications because Roman didn’t have a passport, so he and Halyna had to travel to Warsaw, to a British Embassy base, to arrange paperwork.
“I didn’t believe it was possible for us to come to the UK, but it turns out miracles do happen,” smiles Halyna.
It was a complex administrative process for Pam and her husband Nick to negotiate too. “My legal brain was fried!” says Pam, a lawyer. When Halyna and Roman finally landed at Leeds Bradford Airport, they were met by Pam and Nick, who have three sons; Matthew, 28, Alexander, 25 and Oliver, 20. “Pam and Nick had soft bears for us, and welcomed us warmly,” says Halyna. With Halyna unable to speak English, and Pam and her family speaking no Ukrainian, communication was a challenge. “We d just looked at each other and made gestures. We laughed till we cried,” recalls Pam. “One day Halyna was asking to go somewhere - she kept miming something that looked like ‘fountains’. I was thinking ‘Where on earth does she mean?’ Eventually I realised she meant City Park in Bradford, with the Mirror Pool fountains. I can speak some Ukrainian now. We got a little dog and Roman named him Tuzik; Ukrainian for ‘mongrel’.”
Halyna’s husband, a pipeline engineer tasked with checking and preventing sabbotage to gas supplies, is in Ukraine.
Four weeks after arriving here came news that her brother, fighting in the army, had been killed. Her brother-in-law has also died in the war. “I had different emotions; happy to be safe, but I was in mourning. Pamela helped us a lot,” says Halyna.
In Ukraine Halyna was an epidemiologist. Here she works in the restaurant, with Olha, at Harden’s Woodbank Garden Centre. She and Olha attend English classes at Bradford College. “My work here is very different to my work in Ukraine, but I am thankful for it,” says Halyna.
Roman goes to Bingley Grammar School, and his English is good. “I want to shout from the rooftops about Bingley Grammar - it’s been fantastic,” says Pam.
“I got a phonecall from the head who said they’d created a ‘Ukrainian hub’ so we went to look round. They set up a summer school, so Roman and other children from Ukraine could learn English and maths and get to know the school before the new term in September. It gave them a flying start. The individual attention from the school, and home liaison, has been phenomenal.”
Roman enjoys school. “I like computer science best,” he smiles.
There has also been support from Bradford Ukrainian Club. Halyna and Roman went on a recent trip to the Lake District organised by the club for refugee mothers and children. “We go to concerts at the club and have made lots of friends there,” says Pam.
Sitting together in the kitchen, laughing and chatting, the families are clearly close. They’ve been learning about each others’ cultures; at Christmas they had a 12-course Ukrainian dinner, and recently celebrated Ukrainian Easter. “Halyna, Roman and Olha have two bedrooms and a bathroom. They’re extremely respectful and we all get on so well,” says Pam. “We all thought they might be home by Christmas. The minimum sponsors could sign up for was six months, now it’s extended to two years. We take it one day at a time.”
Halyna misses home dreadfully, and her loved ones left behind, but, she says, “My family has become bigger. I am so happy that I met this beautiful, compassionate family. Pam is wonderful. Every day I am thankful for her kind heart.”
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