I’m following Gytha to the Wild Field for Charity!

After King Harold was killed at Hastings (1066) his 3 sons and one daughter, Gytha of Wessex went on the run. Gytha ended up in what is now Ukraine. A little English girl from Bosham on the south coast dispatched to marry a Ruthenian war-lord called Volodymyr Monomakh – (Let me run that past you again.) Gytha was ‘trafficked’ over a 1000 miles, nearly a 1000 years ago! I wrote a novel about her called Wild Field*. And NOW, a charity called Convoy4Ukraine sends trucks and medical aid to Ukraine, and me and my mate Chris have signed up to drive there with them. 960 years after Gytha journeyed to Ukraine. We are raising £9000 each to buy a vehicle and fill it with humanitarian aid. Please give generously. Imagine that 'you are fighting for your home and your family.'

*Wild Field Дике поле: historical name for the vast sparse Eurasian steppe. Today, the term is tied to the untamable freedom, history and ancestral lands of the Ukrainians.

Convoy4Ukraine was formed to fund the purchase of pickup trucks and ambulances as well as medical and humanitarian aid which is then driven to Ukraine by volunteers.

The next convoy will leave for Ukraine in October 2026 in the fifth year of Russia’s war.

Drivers and co-drivers aim to raise the £9,000 required to buy and service a pickup truck and the further £9,000 required to fill it with the high quality medical and humanitarian supplies requested by the Charity’s contacts in Ukraine.

The trucks will be left in Ukraine where they will be used to evacuate the injured and those impacted by war. If a driver’s target of £9,000 is exceeded, Convoy4Ukraine will buy additional trucks and deliver more aid.

The team leading the October trip have been undertaking this operation for the last three and a half years. In this time twelve missions have been successfully completed and they have:

• raised some £2,100,000 all of which has been spent on aid and vehicles.

• delivered 128 pickups, an ambulance, two minibuses and an ATV;

• assisted many medical units and a number of hospitals in Lviv with specialist equipment;

• provided two fully equipped mobile ‘Stabnet’ operating theatres manufactured in Kharkiv.

Aid priorities change from month to month but as well as the vehicles and donated NHS kit they invariably include the following items: Tourniquets; Israeli Bandages; Vented chest seals; Abdominal emergency Bandages; Celox gauze; Soft Stretchers,; Ecoflow Power banks; Burn gel; Cookers; Medic Rucksacks and Generators. In addition, we aim to finance a further fully equipped mobile operating theatre

All travel and accommodation costs and the cost of diesel for the trip will be funded personally by the drivers.

If, like us, you've been wondering how you could provide some practical support to all the Ukrainians who continue to care for the injured and those in peril from Russian attack, then please make a donation which will go towards funding this effort.

Thank you very much.