A Swindon hospital has teamed up with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to help people over 1,600 miles away.
Wroughton-based Ridgeway Hospital, part of Circle Health Group, has launched an appeal, in partnership with Mr Johnson, for medical supplies for Ukraine hospitals treating the sick and injured during wartime.
The appeal warns that Ukrainian hospitals are pushed to breaking point and without donations face running out of vital items such as bandages and defibrillators within weeks.
Over the last 8 months, nearly 300 tonnes, or £3million worth, of medical supplies, some of which was donated from Ridgeway Hospital, was delivered in 13 lorry loads across Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Lviv and Kherson.
Mr Johnson and the Ukrainian Ambassador recently visited the Enfield warehouse, where supplies are gathered from The Ridgeway Hospital, to see first-hand the logistics of transporting hospital kit in bulk across Europe by lorry.
He was briefed by Ukrainian doctors helping to coordinate relief efforts and helped to load the latest lorry with hospital beds and anaesthetic machines. Speaking after the visit, he called on people to give generously to the appeal.
Mr Johnson said: "The Great British public are renowned for their generosity of spirit - even when times are tough at home - so I’m calling on them to dig deep this Christmas and help send hope to the heroic Ukrainian medics battling to save lives by supporting Circle Health’s vital humanitarian mission.
"Not one bandage or bed you fund will go to waste in the Herculean task of rebuilding beautiful, brave Ukraine."
A team of Ukrainian doctors working for Circle Health Group in the UK liaise directly with medics and inform Circle Health Group about hospitals’ stock shortages in real-time.
Items are then gathered from each of Circle’s hospitals across every region of the UK and sorted and loaded at their Enfield warehouse.
The Ridgeway Hospital has made a renewed commitment to continue supporting Ukrainian medics for as long as the crisis continues.
Dedicated employees volunteer to drive the loads across Europe right into war-torn areas of Ukraine. Items delivered to date include hundreds of wheelchairs, crutches, scrubs, bandages, ambulances, operating tables, hospital beds, ventilators, anaesthetic machines and prosthetics.
A spokesperson for Ridgeway Hospital said: "Everyone at Ridgeway has been moved by the terrible events unfolding in Ukraine.
"We and the community in Swindon are proud to renew our commitment to medical colleagues in Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Lviv and Kherson."
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