A brave Greater Manchester NHS worker who told of little children being lined up and shot by Russian soldiers in war-ravaged Ukraine is planning to return for a second time to help train troops and hospital staff.
The NHS staff helped orphaned children and traumatised troops who had lost everything they owned and loved to Vladimir Putin's invasion. Medic Marta Roscoe, 37, from Bolton heard terrible stories - including one Ukrainian amputee describing how he was forced to watch young children being lined up and shot by Kremlin troops.
Marta, who has a four-year-old son and a seven-year-old daughter, said: "It is absolutely brutal. One of the patients, Pyotr, said he saw his neighbours put in a line, including small children, and shot."
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Marta, an administrator at Wythenshawe Hospital, was joined on a five-day trip last month by nurses Sister Louise Crossley-Birch, Janette Butterworth, vaccinator, mental health nursing assistant Michelle Piercy and paediatric intensive care nurse Nikki Forshaw-Mahon - and now they plan to return.
She said: "People were ecstatic to see such a professional team from England - they believe that British medics are the best. Some patients were happy to see us, some were just too traumatised to talk."
Marta, who carried a tourniquet in case she was shot, said: "You have to prepare for the worst - you never know." The team arrived back in Manchester on September 13 and she said the trip was 'successful'.
She added: "In the short time available, we managed to provide training and basic first aid to the medical teams in Lviv Hospital, civilians and 100 teenagers in an orphanage.
"With the knowledge and expertise of the team, we also managed to sort and catalogue the donated drugs in the pharmacy department of the charity we were supporting. We were privileged to be allowed to visit a military hospital and also the modern Lviv hospitals where we have been invited to return.
"We are already planning training programmes to be delivered on our next visit. I have been liaising with several charities based in Ukraine and Poland to develop support programmes."
Now, the team are preparing to return and have set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for costs. They wrote: "After our first successful mission in September to send Nurses to Ukraine, we are raising funds to send a further mission back to Ukraine in November to train frontline soldiers and local hospital staff.
"We will provide medical training and direct medical assistance to support mobile hospitals serving the local Ukraine community who have been recently liberated through training and immediate medical help.
"This charity began at Etihad Mass Vaccination Centre, Manchester, where healthcare workers from all walks of life banded together to support the administration of the Covid-19 vaccination program. After working through the pandemic as front-line workers, we decided to expand our journey.
"Our mission is to provide medical aid to those who need it most. This was inspired by the anguish witnessed in Ukraine and inspired a response from us."
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