A DISABILITIES group has enlisted the Army to help ship two adapted buses to Russia.

People who attend County Durham Care's Spennymoor Day Centre have raised more than £4,000 to pay for the renovation and transport of two former county council buses to a group of disabled people they have befriended in Kostroma, called the White Dolphin Group.

Durham County Council donated a 28-seat bus that had recently been taken out of service, and the Kaleidoscope Group began raising money to buy a selection of spare parts which might be difficult to acquire in Kostroma.

Group member Carol Burnside said: "We have been in close contact with the White Dolphin Group for more than a year now, and have been writing to each other regularly.

"We found out about the differences in care between our two countries, particularly the lack of specialist transport for people with a disability in Kostroma, which means they are very isolated.

"We decided we wanted to try and do something to help."

The group managed to negotiate through mountains of red tape to arrange for the bus to be transported to Kostroma, but encountered problems trying to obtain insurance to have the buses driven to Hull.

After hearing of their struggles, the Army stepped in, and the 102 REME Battalion volunteered to transport the buses on low loaders from the Territorial Army base at Newton Aycliffe.

Three representatives from the Spennymoor Day Centre, care worker Yvonne Anderson, driver John Hind and client Carol Burnside, will fly to Kostroma on August 2.