MUCH-NEEDED aid collected by big-hearted Daily Echo readers has been delivered to poverty-stricken people in eastern Europe.

Volunteers from Hope and Aid Direct were expected to arrive back home in Hampshire today after their mammoth journey by road and ferry to Kosovo.

Bernie Sullivan, Charles Lewry and Don Wiggins handed over more than 700 banana boxes crammed with food and toiletries to hundreds of families during their two-week mission.

The aid was taken to nurseries and churches in the region where suffering has become a part of everyday life after a brutal conflict in the late 1990s.

The volunteers even visited a village populated entirely by women since every man and boy aged over 15 was killed during the bitter fighting between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

As the convoy of trucks carrying aid drove up, the grief-stricken women were sitting under a tree in front of a stunning backdrop of snow-capped mountains.

Charles Lewry's wife, Doreen, who has been in contact with the three volunteers since they left on April 2, said the visit to the village had proved the saddest moment in the trip.

She said: "They described it as harrowing and so sad when the view was so picturesque behind them. Everyone had great fun although some were reduced to tears at times as the experience was an emotional roller coaster."

The convoy, made up of volunteers from across Britain, took 85 tonnes of aid in total - which was distributed to 10,000 people from 2,330 families - four times the amount of aid that was given out last year.

They have reported back the message that the expressions of thanks were overwhelming from the people so grateful to receive the aid.