The plight of elderly refugees

The day we left for home our friend Gillie Lewis posted this on Facebook:

Have said it before, one of the saddest thing to see out here are the elderly. No way should they be doing the journey! But desperation has driven them to leave their country. Today's example was a man of 70 who just sat down in the middle of the camp because he could go no further. He had had a stroke in the past and could not speak. He had his wife with him. He was exhausted. He didn't want to stay in the medical tent ,everyone is desperate to move on, regsiter, get to Athens and then the border. I persuaded him to rest 'for just an hour'. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow. Just how is he going to make it all the way to wherever??

And her husband, Gael, wrote:

Busiest day of our tour here. Eight and a half solid hours of changing shivering wet people into dry clothing. Getting to be a real Montague Burton at eyeballing their sizes. Gutted that we often do not have the right size shoes, or even any shoes, or we've had to send some fashion conscious lad away in baggy corduroys. The stoical way most of these people handle their discomfort is moving and humbling. Some may think we volunteers are doing great things but the real heroes of this tragedy are the families who steel themselves to make this dangerous and slow journey from camp to camp in search of the ultimate goal of freedom and safety.