Andy’s 27th Run

Prior to our run, we visited our long term supporters at Medi Tech Trust where the ever helpful Stuart provided aid that will go to Odesa and the Orphanage we support. Huge thanks to Stuart and Bob Lewis for continuing to support Ukraine – they also provide a lot of aid to other aid teams including our good friend Valentyna Skoromets.

With the van fully loaded, it was off to Dover! Once again, there were no queues or delays:

After the usual long drive through France, Belgium, The Netherlands, German and into Poland, it was time for our regular game of “Border Bingo”! This time, we had the additional rule changes relating to use by dates! (we checked everything of course but you never know if something slipped through).

Just 2hrs 50m to get across- none of the cargo was searched despite warnings this has been happening recently. Then a pleasant run from the border to Vinnitsya where we stayed for the night. Huge thanks again to Valentyna Skoromets for providing the hotel for the night.

Our first visit was to our good friends at the Charitable Foundation “I Will Help” in Odesa.

as we had 2 electric wheelchairs on board, we were able to take these directly to the Border Force Hospital in Odesa and give them to two soldiers there. The team compiled this video for us:

Yesterday became a truly special and deeply emotional day for our team – Charitable organization “I WILL HELP”. The President of the organization, Oleksandr Yuriiovych Zlatin, together with our reliable partners and true friends – Andrew Wooler and Tony (Brass Band Aid for Ukraine) – visited a hospital where our wounded defenders are undergoing treatment and rehabilitation. Together, we delivered critically important aid to the soldiers – modern electric wheelchairs. This new equipment will significantly ease the daily lives of our Heroes and help them adapt more quickly to new conditions. 🤝 Our deepest gratitude to Andrew Wooler and Tony for traveling thousands of kilometers, collecting aid, delivering it under shelling, and personally supporting those who protect our skies! 🙏 We keep moving forward without stopping for a moment. A deep bow to everyone who helps, supports, and believes in our mission. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes!

The I Will Help team often send us videos of our aid being delivered:

From Odesa, we travelled up to Krop to meet up with our dear friend Anton and the “Help from the Heart” Foundation. This included our regular visit to the orphanage:

The children presented Andy & Tony with angel trinkets which they had made – very touching as always meeting these kids.

We had a number of parcels on board for delivery by Anton to front line folks which we handed over at a meal in the hotel restaurant:

Whilst we we there, a group of new recruits were celebrating completing their training prior to deploying the next day. As they were from a special forces unit, this was a good time to give them the last of my Para Reg flags – they really appreciated this.

Our final task was to collect some parcels to take back to the UK for a refugee there. Once these were on board, we were set for the homeward trip. Because of these parcels, we chose to use the normal Medyka crossing where we thought the Polish customs would be easier to deal with – and they were.