Run 32 – December 2024

Preparation for run 32 is well underway! The bulk of the aid this time is heading to a hospital in the Odessa region. The hospital there contacted our friends at Medi Tech Trust who in turn, contacted Help Ukraine 🇺🇦 BAMK UK in Milton Keynes. That led them to our good friend “Wozza” in Folkestone and finally back to Andy in Brighton!

We also recently received a specific request to help out one of our aid contacts in Zaporizhia with warm clothing and boots for her children – once again, Wozza was quick to help with a donation of new boots for the 2 boys. He also gave us another contact in Lydd who added winter coats and warm clothing for the family as well. Huge thanks to Gina Allen of “Ambulance for Ukraine Kent” for her kind and spontaneous donation which Andy collected on the way home from Folkestone.

Andy will once again be joined by Tony Line for this trip – Tony is no stranger to Odessa and is looking forward to being there for New Year’s Eve!

Thanks also to Dee Johnson who has again provided most of the clothing and bedding that will go to refugees and to the many people who support “Brass Band Aid for Ukraine”.

A real highlight for this trip will be the handover of Andy’s old van to the military! Regular readers will recall that the van broke down on run 29. Since then, Andy has donated the funds to get the engine repaired and our dear friend Anton and the folks at “Help from the Heart” charity have been working to get it ready for handover during this run. I am pleased to say we are on target to do that!

More on this as we get closer to the official handover! And so, Run 32 got underway in the early hours of 27th December- virtually 2 years to the day of Andy’s first ever run!

Fog and the usual hold ups got us to the border with Ukraine around 24 hrs after leaving Calais – time for “Border Bingo”!

After another long drive, we finally arrived in Odesa where we had a small incident with the van and a Jeep! 2 hours of discussion with the police and it’s in the hands of the insurers and we were finally able to get some sleep in our air B&B apartment!

This was our first time working with the charity “I Will Help” and I have to say, they are a really impressive team! Supporting around 6,000 refugees and multiple hospitals, they are one of the largest organisations in Ukraine. We met our contact Boris in the morning and went to unload at their HQ. Overnight, they sorted out what aid we could deliver the next day. In the meantime, they were having a team BBQ which was a great way to meet their core team.

The next day, we went with the team to the Border Patrol Rehabilitation Hospital in Odesa with a selection of the aid we had brought with us and a few boxes from our friends at BAMK that had arrived separately. “I Will Help” have an excellent video guy who made this excellent documentary of our visit there:

We noted that sirens were now a daily thing, more so than on our last visit:

An early start the next day found us travelling across to Zaporizhia where we had 2 drops to make. The first one was to meet James Kaprini to drop off some parcels from Mike Gray in Manchester. We were offered the opportunity to pop into the front line area to see the flags at the Orikhiv sign (many more than when we were last here) and to see where new defensive trenches were being built in anticipation of a major Russian offensive.

As the Russian advances around the Orikhiv area have increased substantially, the risk to the city itself has increased too. Just a few kilometres away from the outskirts of the city, new trenches are being dug in anticipation of a major offensive. What we see here is at the start of one very long trench – there will not be metal structures for the whole length and soldiers will still need to dig into the sides to create their own shelters. This is just one of many we saw in the front line area. We have previously visited the city of Orikhiv, or what is left of it, but that would not now be possible – it’s potentially only a matter of time before these trenches are in use. In many ways, Zaporishia is a forgotten city by the world media – but this is an important target for the Russians and the need for humanitarian aid grows as each tiny village along the way is destroyed. Those who are still there delivering such aid will be known to the enemy and will be risking their lives to remain there. If the city falls, these new trenches are where many brave Ukrainian soldiers will die trying to protect Zaporizhia. We pray they don’t get this close.

Our second drop was to Nataly and the HIMARS charity. We were able to provide some specific items for her kids (Thanks to Wozza and Gina Allan) together with general clothing and bedding (Thanks to Dee Johnson and Brass Band Aid fir Ukraine). we were very touched by the reception we received! Sadly, due to some gps issues, we were late getting there so couldn’t stay long.

Nataly has also since then delivered the aid to 128 Brigade:

Then it was time to drive to Kropyvnytskyi and ready ourselves for the next phase of the trip!

Whilst Tony had a well earned lie in, Andy was up early to visit another great friend, Taras the Priest in Zhashkiv:

Then it was back to Krop to meet with Anton and Lisa for a well earned meal!

The next day, we delivered to our favourite Orphanage – they do such great work here and is somewhere we will support as much as we can.

Our next stop was to deliver some laptops etc to the Air Defence guys – an interesting place to visit and learn what these guys do to defend against missile and drone attacks. Indeed, warnings of a ballistic attack led to a speedy departure from the site to let them do what they do best. This is another team we will continue to support particularly with tech items.

We were also given a demonstration of one of the tools they have at their disposal!

Before leaving, Andy presented the commander with a Parachute Regiment flag (he served there back in the day) as a reminder that we in the UK are behind them! Apparently, he plans to have it in his pickup truck!

Another flag will be accompanying Andy’s old van when it is handed to the military. Speaking of which, we returned to our hotel where the van was to be delivered ahead of the run back to the border in the morning.

I have to thank the whole “Help From The Heart” charity but especially Anton and Dmitri who did most of the work to rebuild the engine on the tight budget I was able to give them.
We spent the evening with them and the other founder of the charity, Mr. Happy! We also met the driver for the return of the van – Andreyi, a war veteran who served in the Donetsk region and survived being blown up. I was extremely touched when he presented me with the Ukraine patch that he had worn throughout the campaign. An early night ahead of the long drive to the border the next day.

The journey to the border took a lot more time than we expected as Andreyi had not driven a right hand drive vehicle before and at our first coffee stop, wanted to take over the driving of the van so he could get used to it. Somewhat later than planned (approx 7hrs behind schedule). we both arrived at the border – the old van by now had no working windscreen wiper (damaged when starting out by the ice build up) and lost the all important wing mirror to a passing truck. Fortunately, there was still a spare mirror of sorts in the old van which when combined with gaffer tape and a used coffee cup, gave at least some visibility.

On arrival at the border we discovered the ticketing system was in place due to the weather conditions inside the border area where a coach and van had collided. The resulting re-routing of coaches inside the border was chaotic to say the least! So it was time to play multiple rounds of border bingo! Firstly, Andy had to drive the old van back into Poland, then turn around and come back through to make the official customs declaration of his donation of the van. This took 4 1/2 hours to complete the round trip.

It was then time to say goodbye to the old van and make the 3rd crossing in the new one and head for the channel ports!

This crossing was going so well until the Polish customs pulled us for a secondary search! We believe the multiple crossings by Andy within a short period probably triggered that and so into the customs shed we went and had to empty the van whilst they probed underneath and throughout the van itself.

In total, 11 hours after we arrived at the border, we were finally out into Poland and on our way!.

The weather changed as we approached the Poland Germany border where there is also now a check point – another 45 minutes delay to add to the weather conditions. Not sure what happened to the sound on this one but it was taken whilst in the queue:

Being so far behind schedule, we didn’t make any further video updates – we were pushing to get to Calais for an 0720 ferry so that Tony could go straight to work when we got back! (Not the original plan but the 7hr delay in getting to the border left us with no choice than to press on. We made the ferry by the skin of our teeth! As soon as we were we on the car deck, the doors shut and we were on our way to Dover.

And so, Run 32 came to an end – but already, we have medical aid pledges to collect this week for the next run!