Run 11 – December 2022
Run 11 was an eventful one for our van – but more of that later! On this run, we were taking aid provided by our friends at BAMK, UK Aid for Ukraine and other private benefactors to Marina at “Future of Children of Ukraine”.
This included out much needed aid, blankets food and more than anything much needed generators, It’s getting very cold there now and these generators will help small communities and isolated villages these will save lives. Along with winter clothing blankets and duvets, we can’t thank you enough for all your donations and help to get this there to where it’s needed, Also we have Christmas boxes for orphanages too!! Here’s some pictures of what we took:
We were also joined on this trip by Karl Harrison who was driving a donated ambulance.
During the trip, we worked with Marina to deliver aid to Orphanages:
This included much needed power generators kindly donated by Northern Powergrid:
No matter how well prepared you think you are for a run things can go pear shaped pretty quickly! The weather played a big part in making this run extremely challenging. Firstly on our return journey, snowy conditions between Lviv and into Poland with blocked roads and stranded trucks made for an interesting detour off the beaten track there. The conditions took their toll on the van and consequently we broke down in mid Germany with an alternator failing which also fried the battery. After spending the night in an unheated van with temperatures dropping to -13 we were able to source a battery thanks to a kind German who offered to run me into Kassel to buy one. We then ran to Weeze with the alternator disconnected where Guy Ticehurst ran around sourcing an alternator for us. €500 lighter but at least we live to press on getting aid to where it’s needed. Many thanks to Guy for his assistance and a special thanks to Karl Harrison for noticing the signs that Mike had started to slide into hypothermic shock despite being well wrapped up.
When back home the van will receive some modifications to help it cope with the brutal weather and the next run is in the planning.
