The methodist church in Tavistock and Horrabridge has recently joined forces with Ukrainian refugees living in Tavistock to raise nearly £1,300 to help provide a team of Ukrainian paramedics with equipment.

The team has a connection with Ukrainians living in Tavistock, as one is a former student of former Kyiv university lecturer Tatiana Kovalchuk. Tatiana, known as Taniam worked as a chemistry lecturer at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, and her former students and friends are campaigning to provide medical aid to those on the front line in the Ukraine.

Methodist pioneer Ali Mansfield coordinated efforts to run cupcake sales to raise funds.

She said: ‘As soon as Tania informed me of this, I immediatey approached my superintendent minister and they agreed we should help Tania, who has given so much to the community in her time here, such as language lessons at the methodist church. There were four great ladies in Horrabridge who helped bake cupcakes for these events.’

Three cupcake sales were held at the Tavistock women’s ‘stronger together’ group, at the Tavistock Methodist Church and at the Horrabridge community pop up cafe, raising £70, £620 and £68 respectively, with additional funds from both communities.

Ali added: ‘The Tavistock community heard about this and wanted to help. The Tavistock Lions got involved and one man generously donated £250. Tania is now able to help her studens in Kyiv. The team can now use night vision goggles in their service and track down people in serious need. It’s lovely to have the people of our communities stand with our Ukranian friends in a time of such difficulty.’

Tania said: ‘Thank you so much to everyone who helped organise this fundraising. A special thank you to Ali Mansfield and Tavistock Methodist Church, to everyone there for welcoming and supporting us and my friends Maryna Kyrii and Olena Bulochnik for being there to help. What we do will help people and save lives.’