A relief aid truck driver from Temple Bar has departed for Romania on his 100th and possibly final trip delivering essential supplies and foodstuffs.

Richard Burgess, who turned 76 last week, will be making the 3,500-mile round trip through Belgium, Germany, Austria and Hungary he first completed in 1992 when making his first relief aid delivery in the wake of the Romanian revolution.

Accompanied on the gruelling four-day trip by his wife, Linda, Richard will be driving their 40-tonne artic lorry – packed with food, clothing and hospital equipment - to the northern town of Dorohoi almost on the Ukrainian border.

There the aid – collected by the Romanian Aid Foundation - will be distributed among schools, orphanages, families and old people’s homes.

“It’s the poorest area of the country and it’s like going back in time 50 years or more,” Richard told the Cambrian News.

“There are still horses and carts on the roads and you still see horses working in the fields.

“Around 70 per cent of the population are unemployed, a teacher only earns 250 euros a month and there is no unemployment benefit.”

Richard and Linda, who are members of Emmaus Christian Fellowship Church in Lampeter, say that on first witnessing the conditions in which Romanian people were struggling to live, they felt they had no option but to help.

“We are a Christian family who believe in trying to help people as much as we can,” said Richard.

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