Some of you may have supported Sandy and Ben Shandro on our mission to deliver a fully-restored ambulance full of medical kit to Ukraine last September. The mission was a huge success and your donation was essential to that success.

We were part of a convoy of 8 ambulances, each one driven by volunteer fundraiser/drivers. Four days after we left London, our Ukrainian hosts were anxiously awaiting our arrival in Lviv, ready to continue the journey of each and every ambulance to points further East in Ukraine. Our own ambulance was immediately whisked off to Odessa, where intense fighting continues. We had an emotional dinner on the day of our arrival, which only served to intensify our determination to help this country fight what is, after all, a war being fought for the western values so dear to countries like the UK.

Upon our return, Sandy decided to get involved in helping to run the charity, which is called Medical Life Line Ukraine. His task is to recruit the new fundraiser/drivers on whose unstinting efforts we rely, make sure that everyone who volunteers is able to drive an ambulance safely a couple of thousand kilometres in a convoy formation, help with fundraising, and generally assist the other members of a small but industrious committee of 5 people to keep up the momentum.

So far, we are succeeding beyond our wildest expectations: a convoy leaving London on May 11 will include our 100th ambulance, effectively making us the supplier of 10% of ALL the ambulances provided to Ukraine from outside the country. We continue to attract press and media coverage, and our queue of driver/fundraisers continues to grow. Convoys leave London 6 times per year. The need is such that it is really an open-ended challenge.

And our work continues to evolve. With this evolution our need for additional funding becomes more acute, and we invite you to help us. We are, for example, focussing much more on providing what is known as “tactical medicine” – things like compression bandages and tourniquets. Great numbers of such items can be packed into our ambulances, and they are expensive. We are also planning to add anti-drone protection to the ambulances we are providing. And more generally, we are doing our best to meet special requests that come to us from our contacts in Ukraine, such as requests for medical equipment needed to perform skin grafts and reconstructive surgery.

So we are re-opening our Just Giving site to permit you to access gift aid should you feel able to donate to keep our efforts going. Even if there are peace negotiations worthy of the name, or even a peace deal, the need for charities such as Medical Life Lines Ukraine to continue to assist this brave country to carry on will continue for years to come. Indeed, the demand for medical aid is soaring.

We thank you for taking the time to read this message, and in advance for any contribution you are able to make.

Sandy and Ben Shandro

Sandy and Ben