Caring for the Injured and Sick

 I cannot believe it's been 12 days since my last blog when I was deep into the care of mums and babies fleeing the war. It was one of the most harrowing experiences I have had but all the time I was thinking that it was a lot less harrowing than what the young mums and their children were undergoing. I did get to the point though where the people around me advised I took a break for a few days and so I had thought about a couple of days back with my beloved family before returning but all that changed when Nick Butler, an old naval mate of mine contacted me to say he was arriving on the scene with his son Marcus and both wanted to get involved. Marcus had a particular passion because his wife is Ukrainian and her family are still stuck in the country. Without boring you with the detail, our contacts in Ukraine let us know that there was an urgent need for as much medical equipment and supplies as possible to support the rescue and treatment of innocent civilians caught up in the conflict and so rather than go home we as a team decided this was a challenge we quite fancied having a go at. Marcas has good contacts over the border so we are able to understand the need and find a way for supplies to get there. How to fund the need was an issue, so I came up with the idea of getting hold of Dawn Williams who heads up Crowdfunder. Dawn as well as being a friend has been a trusted work colleague for a number of years and is one of the most effective networkers I know. She is also passionate about causes and within a few hours had created our crowdfunding campaign. We hit the social media outlets with that and all of us leaned on our own contacts. Wow what a response! I cannot thank everyone enough for their generosity. We generated £20k within 24 hours. A huge thanks to everyone - close friends, my village - thanks Cawsand Congregational and pastor Jill, my Loughborough gang from student days who have supported me throughout, so many generous anonymous supporters - just thank you we are humbled. Although the money is not available for7 days we know its there and so because we wanted to get things moving immediately we have drained our credit cards, identified, tested, purchased and now delivered the first two ambulances over the border to Ukraine. One of these at least we know is already operating out of a hospital. We managed to do all of this - with admittedly little sleep - in 24 hours so my joke is we are quicker than your DHL driver! We have also just taken delivery of 500 battle tourniquets - critical emergency equipment. We will spend the next couple of days identifying more medical equipment but will wait until funds clear on Monday to purchase as not sure our personal banks will stomach any more!

We are currently reviewing how we operate because we have been made aware that our activities have generated unwelcome attention. It is critical that we are clear we are only providing humanitarian medical support as we become legitimate targets if our equipment is taken and used by military forces. In this particular conflict the line between military and civilian is much more blurred as in reality the whole Ukrainian population has mobilised itself against its aggressor. We want to be there to support them but we need to be cautious and so at times you may not hear or see as much from me and others and I may  not report everything here or through my other communication channels. My thanks to David Hamilton in Scotland who has been looking out for me from afar. 

Finally thank you for so many messages of support and kindness . And to my new Polish friends I am not even sure where to begin - at every step someone is there to offer a hand -hot bunking in a camp bed in a school found for me by Lukasz , Paulina, and Peter and Polish Wheelchair Rugby there to help in so many ways with personal admin, accommodation, arranging travel to and fro and getting me medicine, Ana and her husband Ali who are teaching me so much about humanity, Agnieszka and her dear family who offered me some respite and normality. the kindness of Sylwia who travelled on a bus to meet me, took away a bag of dirty clothes, worn for days on end!  and met me at another point a day later to give them back cleaned. This is real community, these are the values I cherish, worth more than riches, truly more than riches.