Run 31 – November 2024

02:00 and run 31 starts. As you can see the Silver Beast is rammed full of aid. Many thanks to all of you that have donated both aid and finances to make this possible. You are all heroes.

Slava Ukraine

A little update from yesterday. Today marks 1000 days of full scale war in Ukraine. How much longer? We all hope and pray for peace in this beautiful country.

It’s a good job Mike put new winter tyres on the van before departing!
After a disastrous attempt at going live, Mike reverted to recording videos!

After leaving Lviv the team we travelled east ending up in Kyiv. Whilst there they made the delivery on behalf of our friends Hull4Ukraine of Christmas box contents to a lady who’s charity supports a disabled orphanage nearby. Following that they forwarded a pallet of mixed aid to our recipient further south by the fabulous Nova Poshta system. They had requested the aid sooner than we would have been able to deliver it personally. They then spent a wonderful evening with old friends before heading south from Kyiv on a very snowy Thursday morning.

Next on the list heading south, we visited our good friend Volodomir. We delivered supplies for an animal sanctuary he supports and we were able to give him some funds to support him in his work supporting the military. As you can see he lives in the middle of nowhere so the snow chains were deployed for the first time to aid our departure.

Along the way, the team was joined by the legend that is Wozza!

After leaving our good friend Volodamir we headed further we headed further south to our friend Taras the priest where we delivered mobility aids and clothing. Apart from being an orthodox priest he is also a military chaplain. He supports his local hospital which has a whole floor dedicated to injured soldiers hence he is pictured here in uniform.

This included a box from the previous run which somehow got left on Andy’s van!

Next delivery was with our friend Anton. He is located very near to the geographical centre of Ukraine. He also supports a disabled orphanage about an hours drive away. Together we managed to deliver a considerable amount of aid to this institution and were hounoured to be invited to meet some of the children there. Ages here are up to around thirty years old with moderate to severe disabilities. An extremely emotional experience for us all and somewhere I would dearly like to be able to support in a regular basis. I had a small bag full of knitted teddy puppets with me that were left on my doorstep by an as yet unknown donor, These caused so much joy here. Whoever donated these to us I would like to express my gratitude to you. Your action gave so much joy to the children here thank you so much they were a massive hit . If you remember we shipped some aid from our vans at the beginning of our journey through Ukraine, this was the destination for that consignment.

Following our visit to Anton and the orphanage we then travelled north east to the right bank of the Dniper river to our friends at Calvary Church. These wonderful people have regular ‘days’ where they invite refugees from frontline areas to receive aid from them. We were so honoured to be invited to take part in proceedings as honorary’Santa’s Elves’ distributing toys and sweets etc to children and parents. It was indeed a very busy but rewarding experience and the stories we heard were extremely upsetting. In the video here, Katya from the church explains how the 12 year old girl with her has to look after her baby sibling as their mother is injured in hospital. This is but one of many stories we heard of.

But to get there. it’s impossible to avoid potholes!

At the end of our busy day at the church we then dropped off some medical supplies to a lady called Dariya and her doctor colleague and then helped Wozza deliver two hospital beds to a rehabilitation centre before making our way north east the next day to Kharkiv. The night there was reasonably quiet with many sirens throughout the night and there were three booms that awoke us in the early hours. I understand they were reasonably near to us but not so close to affect us.

In the morning we had a rendezvous with two very brave guys who run help and supplies right up to zero line defenders. We transferred supplies and aid into their transit van, exchanged niceties and then after they went we then headed south east.

Heading south east from Kharkiv we entered previously occupied territory in the Donbas and moved increasingly towards the frontline. The devastation of the fighting was increasingly apparent as we approached our first rendezvous in Izium. The following video montage was taken in the Izium area:

We decided there weas only one sensible option at this junction!

Not a good place to stop either!

Once completed we then carried on to two more rendezvous, one in Sloviansk and another in Kramatorsk. The pictures on this post give an idea of how Izium is at the moment and further on our journey it was not wise for us to take pictures or film. Once our supplies were delivered and we experienced the wonderful hospitality we receive all over Ukraine we then had a challenging return journey in darkness to Kharkiv for the night. Fortunately we had a quiet time this day but it could have been a different story. We did however meet some wonderful people two of which are guys that are part of what is known as the 200.
These guys collect and bring to relative peace the bodies not only Ukrainian soldiers but everyone, civilian and also Russian soldiers they do not have any prejudice and as they put it, they collect and bring souls to peace. Very brave guys who work totally unarmed in very dangerous circumstances. True heroes

The next day with our mission completed we departed Kharkiv on the 3,300km journey home. The first overnight stop was in Kyiv and then Guy Ticehurst and myself bid farewell to Wozza and then drove 28 hours solid through to Guy’s place on the German/Dutch border where we reminisced over a few beers. The border crossing was very smooth and problem free as was the border control into Germany from Poland.

The trip was hugely successful with only a couple of minor issues from the van the main one being yet another grumbling wheel bearing to attend to now I’m back home.

There are many people to thank that have made this trip possible and as I’m sure you’re aware the cost of fuel and ferries is quite considerable. I would like to be able to plan my next run for around the end of January or February but I can only do this with your help as my savings went completely many months ago now and your generous support is now key to these runs taking place.

My heartfelt thanks and appreciation go firstly to Guy for being the perfect co pilot and also to Wozza for introducing yet more valuable contacts and recipients to us.

Thanks are also due to Ana Mcbride, Olga Ivanova and John Holmes at Hull4Ukraine for entrusting me with their delivery and financial help towards our costs. I hope we can work together again in the near future.

Thanks are also due to:
The people of my home town Winterton N Lincs for their unfaltering support both with physical and financial donations. In particular I would like to thank Lynn Atkinson Brigg Inner Wheel. Winterton Lions. Winterton WI.

Winterton Knitters. Goxhill Knitters. Linda Webster and her sister Ann. Gillian Greenfield. Vicky Rowland. Eric Burton. Peter Collingwood. John. Pauline. Sarah and Mel. Marc for his help with loading and sorting. And of course my lovely wife Annie Hockham for all the hard work she puts in behind the scenes.

Also many thanks to those who have donated and preferred to remain anonymous. You know who you are

Also the people of Barton, Barrow and Burton thank you for your support.

I’m so honoured to live in such a wonderful and supportive community God bless you all.

Together we bring hope and support to those whose lives have been torn apart by this senseless war. Let us pray that there comes a time soon when our help is no longer needed and Ukraine enjoys the peace and sovereignty she deserves.

Slava Ukraini