Andy’s 23rd run -November-December 2025

As always before a run, there is a lot to do – both aid and funding to be organised! Andy collected a number of aid items including a mobility scooter and other items from the Slaney family in Brighton and a large amount of medical aid from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous.

Many thanks to Eastbourne Silver Band for an excellent Remembrance event on Sunday. A well thought out program which was performed excellently – a special mention for a flawless Last Post and Reveille from MD Marcus Plant.
We are hugely grateful to all who donated on the day – half of the collection will be helping to fund our next trip in early December.
Both myself and Tony attended the concert.

If you missed the concert, you can watch it in full here: https://www.youtube.com/live/V0nHcZi16WU?si=GV0c_-o1FcrE2Tq-

Delighted to meet Norman Hunter Rose of The Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem who kindly passed on knitted blankets and dolls for our next run.

Andy visited our dear friend Valentyna to pick up aid destined for front line soldiers – these items will save lives!

Andy attended a fundraiser organised by Rick Bonner – huge thanks once again to the Sounds of Swing Big Band for once again performing for us! A great evening that raised £1000 for Rick’s Ukraine Aid project! He kindly allowed us to fund raise there too!

As we got closer to our departure on Sunday, we visited our good friends at Medi Tech Trust today to complete our load. Huge thanks as always to Stuart for having everything ready and weighed for us!

It was then time to set off!

We have arrived at the border! A smooth run so far…….

Andy and Tony have arrived at our hotel stop in Vinnitsya – huge thanks once again to Valentyna Skoromets for supporting us with this, we really appreciate it!

The border crossing took just 2 1/2 hours mainly due to the extra time on biometrics. Fortunately, both of us had already done the initial scan so just fingerprinting and we were through.

Yesterday was an emotional day for us – we met up with Wozza UA and his team at the Orphanage. Having both teams there together made our visit very special – Santa was also with us and we visited most of the children there to distribute presents.

We then went to 3 other families who act as temporary foster parents for children whilst they await permanent homes – the kids were all excited to see us and dressed for the occasion.

I took a lot of video during the day which I’ll post later!

We are able to do this all thanks to you all – the presents we took came from the Very Chatty Cafe in Uckfield, nappies from Dee Johnson and friends and incontinence pads from Medi Tech Trust. Our sincere thanks to you all and to our dear friend and host Anton who connected us to these wonderful kids.

It was a relatively quiet night although there were some warnings of inbound ballistics, we were with our air defence friends and close to their bunker. A reminder that it gets real sometimes.

Long video alert! We packed a lot in yesterday! Our day visiting orphanages with Father Christmas!

Today we are heading out to deliver medical aid that will go to frontline medics – thanks to Valentyna Skoromets who provided most of this together with additional items from Brass Band Aid supporters.

The exchange of flags is common between volunteers and military units – as a former member of the Parachute Regiment, Andy presented a regimental flag to our contact there.