AN aid convoy with thousands of pounds worth of medical and educational supplies, set out from Paisley town centre yesterday for Romania.

The supplies have been bought with #9000 of donations collected in Paisley over the past year, and other donations such as clothes, toys, and bicycles have been given by the people in the town.

Twenty-five volunteers from Paisley are making the nine- day trip to the towns of Hodos and Simian, to set up a doctor's surgery and community centre.

The aid mission is the work of Project Stephen Romania, which was set up two years ago by Mr John Cathcart, deacon of Wallneuk North Church in Paisley. It is the charity's second aid mission to the former communist country.

Mr Cathcart said yesterday: ''We have to give a big thank you to the people of Paisley.

''The doctor's surgery is very important. In Romania, they don't have many of the basic medicines that we take for granted here, even such things as simple penicillin and syringes are scarce there.''

The mission will set up water pumps in the towns, which at present have no fresh water supply.

Mr Cathcart's wife, Ann, who is also making the trip, said: ''They basically get their water from holes in the ground, there is no hygiene so it is a source of a lot of illness and disease.''

The volunteers will instal a public telephone in Hodos, which at present has no form of telecommunication, and supply more than 70 bicycles to the people of both towns.

''The telephone will give the people of the town a vital link to the outside world,'' said Mrs Cathcart. ''And the transport system is so bad that many people have no means of getting around, so the bikes will be a real god-send to them.''