St Ann’s Chapel resident Colin Clarke has established the ‘Shoebox for Life’ campaign and is asking locals to pack shoeboxes with medical equipment for Ukrainian doctors.

Following a recent journey to Ukraine to offer humanitarian aid and witnessing the devastation in the war-torn country for himself, Colin returned to the UK determined to help Ukrainian doctors on the front-line who are currently battling with a shortage of basic medical supplies.

He subsequently set up the ‘Shoebox for Life’ initiative, a spin-off from his original ‘Van for Life’ scheme, which saw him raise thousands of pounds in order to purchase a 17-seater van in which to transport Ukrainian refugees to safety.

For his new scheme, Colin is asking people to pack a basic first aid kit in a shoebox to send to doctors in Ukraine.

Colin was originally travelling into Ukraine to help refugees escape the country but, while stationed in Lviv in the west of Ukraine, he was asked to transport emergency medical supplies to towns and villages over one hundred miles to the east.

He, together with his friend Adam Wrobel, subsequently travelled 150 miles east in the ‘Van for Life’ to deliver the supplies to front-line doctors.

‘[The doctors] asked if there was a tourniquet case - that’s what they really needed because people are bleeding out. People have been shot and then dying. It was all very very matter of fact like [the doctor] was talking about what he was having for breakfast. But war changes by the minute, you don’t know what will happen,’ Colin said.

The two men were also shocked to discover that it was not just medics who were desperate for first aid equipment.

Adam said: ‘The van was partially loaded in Warsaw with some medical gear and then “topped up” in Zamosc, a Polish city close to the border.

‘Due to delays in Zamosc, we arrived in Lviv long after the curfew and our van was repeatedly checked by the soldiers on the way. They all asked about one thing – time and time again – tourniquets. Whatever the current supplies are, they are obviously not good enough.’

Now returned Colin and Adam are asking for one-handed combat (Generation 7) tourniquets, surgical glue, a small military first aid kit and bandages to be packed inside a shoebox which will be sent to the friends’ contacts in eastern Ukraine.

Colin and Adam first became interested in supporting Ukrainian refugees when they accompanied Tamar Valley resident, Darren Tait, who had organised a convoy of volunteers to deliver much-needed items to a refugee camp in Warsaw.

The men were so affected by the suffering they agreed to transport a Ukrainian family to their new home in Frankfurt which sparked Colin’s ‘Van for Life’ initiative.