Yorkshire was today throwing itself behind efforts to help the desperate Kosovan refugees.

DOUBLE HELPING: Rebecca Husband and Phil O'Connell, who hope to take an aid convoy to the refugees

A lorry was set to leave a Beverley warehouse laden with 40 tonnes of food parcels and blankets for refugees in Albania, in a trip organised by the Feed the Children Charity.

And a public meeting is planned in York by the national group Workers Aid, with the aim of organising an aid convoy to Kosovo.

Rebecca Husband and Phil O'Connell, of Park Grove, York, hope to mobilise local support to help the refugees.

They have taken part in aid convoys to Bosnia in the past and said the aim of Workers Aid was for ordinary people in Britain and other countries from Spain to Scandinavia to go out and help ordinary people in Kosovo. The meeting will be held in St Sampson's Social Centre in Church Street at 7pm next Wednesday.

At the same time, the Haxby-based charity WATCH is all set to leave on Friday for the Kosovan border, where members hope to help provide food and clean water to the starving refugees. But it is still trying to raise thousands of pounds to help meet the costs of the trip.

Across the country, millions of pounds worth of donations have flooded in after a national television appeal last night for funds.

Britons had pledged early today some £2.5 million to the Kosovo Crisis Appeal co-ordinated by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).

Local Oxfam campaigns officer John Sargent, said shops and fundraisers throughout York and the region are on overdrive to get help to the troubled Albanians.

He said: "The sheer scale of the crisis has overwhelmed the aid effort. Yet, despite huge logistical problems, we and other DEC agencies are delivering aid. We desperately need extra funds to boost the aid effort if lives are to be saved."

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