A TRUCKLOAD of clothes, bedding and food will be heading for war-ravaged Kosovo in April - and it's all thanks to generous Argus readers.

Tina Williams, appealed to our readers to donate clothes, food and other humanitarian aid back in October.

Tina, 43, of Maindee Road, Cwmfelinfach, expected to receive a few donations - but the strength of the response left her shocked but delighted.

"I was inundated with phone calls from all over Gwent - people have been so generous, it is completely mind-blowing," Tina told the Argus. "It has really restored my faith in human nature."

The mother of two says she now has enough to fill a seven-and-a-half-tonne truck to take to Kosovo - and she will set off in the first week of April with her driving partner, Nick Osborne, from Cardiff.

She said: "I had a phone call from Bob John, from Pontypool, and he offered to collect bags for me. He did a lot of collecting on my behalf."

Newport councillor Noel Trigg and a colleague from Bettws in Bloom donated all the jumble they had collected for a jumble sale, and Ann Barton offered her business, AB Florists, in Newport, as a collection point for bags.

Tina has kept some space in her truck for dried foods, and is now requesting donations of items such as pasta, rice, dried milk, packet soups and instant mash.

She will be travelling in a convoy of trucks from all over the UK, but needs to raise £3,000 for the journey, and has arranged a benefit evening at Blackwood Miners' Institute to raise some of the cash on February 21.

A 12-piece jazz/soul band called Night Shift will be playing, poet Patrick Jones, brother of the Manic Street Preachers' Nicky Wire, will be giving a poetry reading, and rare Manics' vinyl will be auctioned.

Anyone wanting a £5 ticket, with all profits going towards the Kosovo trip, should contact the 'Stute box office on 01495 227206.

Anyone who can donate dried food to Tina can contact her on 01495 200316, or take the goods to 10 Maindee Road, Cwmfelinfach.