For over a year, I have been volunteering my own time and funding my own trips to Ukraine, working alongside UK based Charities such as NOX Aid UK. Also worked alongside firefighters, emergency services and local communities to deliver practical support where it is needed most.

I personally make my way into Ukraine, up to the front line towns and hand over to the firefighters that will be using it, it’s a risk I am willing to take, but I am now struggling to fund what they need and require from me.

As a firefighter for the past 10 years in the UK, I have seen first-hand the importance of having the right equipment, training and preparation. In Ukraine, many firefighters and volunteers are responding to missile strikes, drone attacks and devastating fires with limited resources, often risking their lives to save others. They are targeted by Russian drones and lose equipment due to this, often left in the open and alone, there needs to be a supply line of equipment for them. That’s where this help comes in.

Every trip I make has one purpose, to ensure that equipment doesn’t just arrive, it is put into service immediately, with the training and support needed to save lives.

So far, I have helped deliver fire engines, firefighting equipment and humanitarian aid, while providing operational training to firefighters and volunteer crews. I’ve worked directly with communities close to the frontline, ensuring donations reach the people who need them most.

I now have strong connections in the massive aid network within Ukraine, State Fire Service, Volunteer Fire Services and Military Rescue Services. This allows me to precisely understand their needs and how to effectively place funding in the right places.

Unlike many larger charities, every donation made through this page will directly support these missions. Funds will be used for things such as:

• Transporting fire engines and emergency vehicles into Ukraine.

• Fuel, ferry crossings and travel costs required to deliver aid.

• Purchasing life-saving firefighting and rescue equipment, fire engines and PPE including ballistic protection for firefighters.

• Drone detection equipment and protective upgrades for emergency vehicles.

• Medical and humanitarian supplies requested by local communities.

• Firefighter training and operational support, and the facilitation of this.

I receive no salary from this work. I fund as much as I can personally, but the scale of what is needed is far greater than any one person can provide, using my own annual leave from my fire service job to make this happen.

Whether you can donate £5 or £500, every contribution genuinely makes a difference. Together we can help protect firefighters, support emergency services and, most importantly, save lives.

All donations and spending will be accounted for and by following my journey you will see directly where the funds are being put to use.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story and for supporting the emergency services and innocent people of Ukraine that are stuck in this dreadful war.

Kyle Jamieson

UK Firefighter & Volunteer