Burnham-On-Sea paramedic and international volunteer Nich Woolf has just returned from delivering an ambulance laden with medical supplies and equipment to war-torn Ukraine.
He drove the 1,600 miles through Europe and saw for himself the effects of the war on Ukrainian people when he was forced to join them in a bomb shelter during an air raid.
Nich, who lives in Burnham-On-Sea, is Chair of Somerset based Festival Medical Services (FMS), who run the medical services at Glastonbury and Reading music festivals and raise money for medical causes in Britain and around the world.
The ambulance was serviced and prepared by FMS volunteers and packed with medical kit in Somerton prior to the trip. All the vehicles will be camouflaged ready for their future use.
FMS, with generous support from UK donors, also obtained two 4X4 vehicles to be converted for frontline medical work in Ukraine.
Nich and three other volunteers drove the FMS ambulance through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland before crossing into Ukraine and on to the capital Kyiv, where they handed it over to a local surgeon.
The journey through sleet and snow was complicated by paperwork delays and language difficulties at the Ukraine border, but they made it to their rendezvous in Kyiv inside four days.
It was when Nich was leaving the city for his journey home that the air-raid sirens sounded.
He said: “The sound of the air raid sirens, and occasionally also of explosions, soon makes you realise this is not a normal city. There are also captured Russian armoured vehicles on the streets and photographs of those killed in the conflict on display.”
“I was about to enter the railway station when the siren sounded and I was grabbed by a police officer, who pointed me down two flights of stairs to the shelter.”
Following the air-raid, Nich missed his train and spent nervous hours waiting for another, fearing he would ultimately miss his flight back to the UK.
But he successfully caught a later train and spent a memorable journey sharing his sleeper bunk with a small dog in a cardboard box that a Ukrainian soldier had rescued from the front and was sending away to safety.
Nich, aged 72, who worked for the Welsh Ambulance Service until 2019, is no stranger to challenging working conditions.
He hit the headlines in 2020 when he became stranded in one of the world’s most remote communities – Vanuatu in the Pacific – where he was working as an emergency medicine volunteer.
He was supposed to be on the island for eight weeks but was actually stuck for eight months due to the COVID pandemic lockdown.
He had previously made four trips to Afghanistan to provide essential training for hospital staff in emergency medicine and use of life-saving equipment. And has also volunteered as a paramedic in Haiti – one of the most dangerous societies on earth.
He was awarded the British Empire Medal for his volunteering work in 2020.
Nich said: “It was a very cold, and sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes frustrating experience, but it was obvious that the Ukrainian medical services have a very great need for what we were bringing over to them, which made it all worthwhile.”
“I have always believed in using my skills to help other people keep safe and have fun – as at Glastonbury Festival – or to help them improve their own skills and ability to keep their local population safe and well, and am very pleased to be still doing that.”
Ever since the war in Ukraine began almost three years ago, FMS has teamed up with other charities working there to provide medical equipment and supplies to the most affected areas. These have included Trauma Boxes, Individual First Aid Kits (IFAKS) and defibrillators.
Pictured: Nich Woolf, Chair of Festival Medical Services (right), hands over the FMS ambulance to a local surgeon in Ukraine
