Helping Our Ukrainian Friends

Supermarket Tribland readers have been buying additional supplies with their supermarket shopping to send to Ukraine

Farm Collection Thanks to everyone who contributed to the collection of dried food for Ukrainian families at Willowbrook Farm Shop before Easter

Medical supplies ready to be loaded

HELPING OUR UKRAINIAN FRIENDS | NEWS & FEATURES Helping Our Ukrainian Friends

Igor Mokryk is head of adult cardiac surgery in Kyiv's heart institute. Now he is part of a team of surgeons struggling against the odds to help Ukraine's heroic defence of its capital city. I met Igor in 2012 during Euro 2012 when he and his wife Galia lived in Donetsk. They had to flee their home in 2014 when war came to the region; and now Galia and their three daughters are refugees in Poland, while Igor works round the clock at the hospital, treating the wounded defenders and citizens of Kyiv. Igor has sent a list of the urgent medical supplies he needs. This includes sutures, surgical gowns and gloves, needles and dressings, antibiotics and antiseptics. We are raising the money to buy the goods and then drive or have them driven out to the PolishUkrainian border where Igor and his team can pick them up.. Our first three pallets of supplies have been donated, we are in touch with medical suppliers, we have an organising committee up and running and storage and transport arrangements in place. But we need money to buy the supplies and pay for transport.

Please do help - this is a way of getting urgent aid to a specific part of the frontline as quickly as we can and helping a surgeon in desperate need of our support and assistance.

Editors’ note: Richard delivered the first lot of medical supplies before Easter and as the Trib’ goes to press he is driving across Europe to deliver the next batch of humanitarian aid, including donations of food and supplies contributed by many or our Tribland readers.

Please continue to support Richard's and the team's effort by visiting their Just Giving Page: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ helpingukrainesurgeons Many thanks everyone for the donations of food for our friends in Ukraine. We spent the afternoon packing it all up and loading the van ready for departure to southern Poland on Monday. Please do keep donating - we will be going out again in May, so need all the help we can get to gather food supplies and to raise money to buy medical supplies

Richard with Galia and Igor in happier times in Donetsk in 2012 To follow the progress of Richard and the team – please check out: Facebook-square/HelpingUkrainesSurgeons/