A kind and caring Edinburgh man has successfully delivered a range of vital medical equipment to the frontline of the war in Ukraine.
Gavin Menzies, from Carrick Knowe, has travelled to the country and successfully delivered important medic mountain bikes to be used in the city of Kharkiv. The Ukrainian city has been the site of intense fighting between invading Russian troops and Ukrainian defenders.
During his time there he toured a bombed out village and witnessed a school that had a rocket land crash through its roof. He also described the vulnerable people that have been unable to leave war torn areas in Ukraine as the elderly and terminally ill.
READ MORE: Caring Edinburgh basketball coach will drive to Ukraine after raising thousands
On one occasion during his visit a bomb landed just a couple hundred feet from where he was walking. While quick escapes to the underground bomb shelters were a regular occurrence during the night.
But despite the dangers, Gavin was able to deliver several medical mountain bikes, helmets, stretchers, fully equipped medical bags, medical beds and a defibrillator. This was the second brave charitable journey that Gavin had made to the war zone this year after he had previously raised £11,000 to deliver vital supplies and help people escape into safe neighbouring countries.
On his efforts he said: “When the conflict began I wondered if I could engage with the contacts I had built up with aid agency workers through my years of working in the charitable sector.
“During my previous campaign we were able to raise over £11,000 and I based myself in Poland. I would drive into Ukraine and would deliver backpacks filled with supplies but would also evacuate people over the border.
“The money was essentially used to fill in the gaps of what people needed in Ukraine.
“This time I spoke with a variety of organisations to help me to put together emergency cycle response units. These are basically fully kitted out mountain bikes with medical bags and equipment attached.
“These are extremely important as vehicles are continuously targeted - especially here in the North where we are relatively close to the Russian border. There are still a lot of people who are working in these villages offering frontline medical outposts so it is important that we help them.
“The military cannot do all of the extras as they are in a fight for their lives. However they have been great in working in partnership with people like ourselves to get vital equipment to volunteers.
“Along with the medical cargo mountain bikes, we have also been able to supply helmets, defibrillators, medical beds and stretchers that we knew would be useful. These places don't have forwarding addresses however, so we have to go and deliver it in person and listen to where the people on the ground think it will be best deployed.”
During his time in Ukraine, Gavin has worked closely with a medical volunteer, Victoria, who gave him a tour of her mothers flat that was completely bombed out by a rocket coming through the window around a month ago. As well as this he was shown a school building that was bombed and where school bags and children's shoes were still visible.
He continued: “On one occasion a rocket flew over my head and hit a couple hundred feet away from where we were walking. This is what these people are living with everyday, indiscriminate attacks on normal people.
“In Kharkiv it is the elderly, infirm, those with chronic conditions like cancer that are having to be treated by people like Victoria. One woman in a flat had to be given palliative care in the middle of a war zone as she was not going to make it through the night.
“Victoria explained that the equipment we were delivering made them feel rich and she was extremely grateful to everyone back home for their help. I saw a lot of the aftermath of the Russian assaults in previous months but whilst I was there you could still hear bombs dropping.
“In Kharkiv it is constant. Three people died in a rocket attack when I was there. We are only 20km away from the Russian border so they can fire artillery over easily.
“In a video I shot, you can see me walking through a high school where there were bags and shoes still lying on the floor. Russians had dropped missiles through a school roof. When I walked through the school the feeling was beyond words.
“There were bombs and artillery shells landing around me 24 hours a day and you rolled the dice that it wouldn’t hit you. But the reality is people are in Kharkiv who need food and medical help, so it has to be done.”
Gavin has worked helping vulnerable children and families in the Scottish capital for around 18 years and says that his work as an accessible basketball coach working with players from across Eastern Europe motivated him to become involved in doing whatever he can to help the people of Ukraine.
The 36-year-old adds that the experience he gained working with Syrians and Lebanese people in asylum and refugee camps in Greece prior to the pandemic made him want to put his skills to good use. As a result he managed to secure funds and donations in order to make a trip into the country.
On those that helped and who he would like to thank, he added: “I managed to get a lot of help from Nick Tadd as well as Tom Bates who have been doing some amazing charity work in Ukraine for the animals here. They worked with me and helped me to speak with the military to find where the bikes would be best used.
“I came over through the amazing backing of the Pentland Ukrainian Support Group based in Currie and the Rotary Club in Balerno who have helped me to raise the funds to deliver the bikes. The bikes were donated through different organisations where they found they had excess stock and the rest of the kit came from those that knew me and asked if items would be of use.
“As well as delivering full stocked medical kits and other essential medical items, I was also able to visit orphanages from Odessa that had been moved into hotels in Poland. I was able to give their teachers a phone and laptop to try to help with their learning.
“I’m currently working my way back at the moment and any additional funds raised at this moment will help me to plan a new aid trip in the future or it will go towards helping Ukrainians in Edinburgh. The issue with planning another trip is that the war means the landscape is always changing so dates and locations are hard to nail down but funding allows us flexibility.
“I’d like to thank Queen Margaret University for allowing me time off from my masters to be able to help the people of Ukraine as well as the Pentland Ukrainian Support Group and the Rotary Club along with all our other backers for their immense support.”
You can visit the campaign's fundraising page here.
And visit his campaign page ‘Curly Heads To Ukraine’ here.
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