Emergency Ambulance – The Drive to the Ukraine Border
Thank you to all who waved us off from our furniture store last Thursday evening.
We had been warned, over the weekend, that we would not have time for anything other than driving during the day and sleeping for a short period at night. We can now confirm this to be very true as Bill and I had over 1,300 miles to drive in two and a half days.
The first day was NOT without issues. The ambulance (ambo 1) was parked outside my house overnight. I went out to the ambulance at 5:45 a.m. in good spirit, sat in the driving seat but the engine just turned over. Minutes past before, reluctantly, the engine started – this is relevant to a problem later in the day.
We found out the previous day, when documents were checked, that the MOT for our ambo 1 was no longer valid. When I eventually started the ambulance and picked up co-driver Lion Bill, our first job was to get the vehicle tested at a garage in Leamington where a 6.30am appointment had been specially arranged. Luckily it passed.
Our convoy of two ambulances and a Range Rover met up at Cobham Services on the M25 and continued on to Le Shuttle at Folkestone. We spent several hours waiting at Folkestone in the lines of trucks and feeling sorry for the HGV drivers who have to queue on a regular basis. We were expecting to be on a train by 12 noon, but it was after 4:00p.m. when we were loaded onto a train.
When we arrived in Calais, and about to follow our other two vehicles off the train our ambulance engine refused to start! We ended up taking up the floor in the ambulance cab to sort out the battery connection, holding up the entire Le Shuttle operation! The next day we borrowed a spanner and tightened the battery terminal properly to prevent the embarrassment of this occurring again.
It was very slow in the French Customs office having our ambulance documents approved. Why did we leave the EU?! It was after 7pm and we still had around 300 miles to drive before our overnight stop in Dortmund, so we did not arrive there until well after midnight. The lights from the heavy industry in the Ruhr (Duisburg and Essen) were very pretty as we passed through. With no time to stop for a meal, we ate on the move – Bill had sausage sandwiches, my wife Alison provided me with buttered fruit loaf and Lion Onur donated apples.
Day two was a long but straightforward 500-mile drive from Dortmund in Germany to Wroclaw in Poland. Towards the end of this day both Bill and I were driving an ambulance as I was requested to relieve the driver in ambo 2. There was much traffic on the Polish motorway and we both reached Wroclaw with very little fuel left in the tanks!
Bill had been kind enough to bring a carrier bag full of CDs. Each day we were treated to an allday disco with him DJing in ambo 1 which helped us along the way.
Sunday was the big day; we drove the 300 miles from Wroclaw along the A4, west to east, to the Poland Ukraine border crossing. Just before the border we turned north to a rendezvous point which we had been sent. We had been told there would be a reception and I was most surprised when we arrived how very quiet it was with nothing around the isolated warehouse. We handed the ambulances over to local ladies reasonably quickly without unloading and without any ceremony and were taken away in a people carrier travelling through woods and bumping over a railway line. Shortly afterwards we were shown pictures (we were not given copies) of our ambulance with Ukrainian soldiers. I understand it was soldiers of the 142nd Medical Brigade of the Ukrainian army. Since the invasion, all service vehicles in Ukraine are controlled by the army. We were driven to a Polish town called the Lezajsk. We were welcomed at the fire station by the mayor and in the hall, we were offered food from a buffet, taken outside for entertainment by a band and then back inside for more food and vodka! Both the Major, Ireneusz Stefanski and local MP, Marcin Worchol (ex-Deputy Prime minister of Poland) spent time talking to us and thanking us.
The local people were very welcoming, and everyone took time to speak to us and make us feel welcome. I have to admit, I discovered the festivities were not entirely due to our arrival although all ambulance convoys in the past had been welcomed with similar events. On the Sunday we arrived the local people were also celebrating the ‘Silver Birch’. It was explained that the King in the seventeenth century was sat under a silver birch in the Brzoza Forrest when he gave the area a royal title.
We were well looked after by the Rural Housewives Association who had prepared the food and sang to us – obviously a very dynamic and active group in the area. Our first plate of food was traditional dumplings and later we ate baked potatoes brought to us from an open fire outside. The potatoes were samples of next month’s Rural Housewives Association Autumn Rites Baked Potato Festival’.
We had been warned about the importance of drinking vodka at these occasions and we were looking forward to a few drinks. After enjoying several shots of home-made vodka, the bottles of quality vodka were served and we lost count of the number of shots!
In the late evening, we were driven to Krakow for a night’s sleep before our return flight to Luton Airport on Monday.
Why is the Polish Centre in Leamington Spa and a town in Eastern Poland so concerned with people in Ukraine? The obvious answer is they wish to provide aid to the innocent people in Ukraine who are suffering greatly following Russia’s ‘special operation’. In addition, I felt the Polish people had a strong empathy for the people of Ukraine. They had their own relatively recent memories of harsh Soviet rule. I was also told about the German occupation of the area in June 1941. Lezajsk had been a town of pilgrimage for Jewish people with a significant Jewish population. An Einsatzgruppen was sent into the town and the Jewish people were rounded up and massacred.
Lions purchased and we handed over the 30th ambulance to be sent by the local Polish Catholic Mission in Leamington Spa. It was good to know that these ambulances and large quantities of other aid sent by the Mission are distributed by Christian Churches in Poland and Ukraine and totally free of any corrupt practices associated with some other organisations. I think Alison may have been the first to make contact with the Polish Centre in Leamington last year and as a result, Lion Dave organised many boxes of brand-new children’s furniture from our furniture store to be loaded onto one of the earlier ambulances to be sent over. Dave and Lion Bill W have since developed the relationship with Dawid Kozlowski (secretary of the Polish Centre) resulting in our delivery of the ‘Kenilworth Lions Ambulance’ (loaded with medical supplies) last weekend.
I must finish this report with a thank you to Euro Car Parts who sponsor the Ambulances for Ukraine. The cost of Le Shuttle, fuel and other costs for the ambulance, our accommodation and flight home were all paid for by Euro Car Parts.
Lion Ivan
Lion member news
The club was delighted to welcome its newest member, Deborah Thomas; shown here with with her sponsor Lion Gordon Henderson and Lion President Sue Meads.
Bryn Morris accepting his prize money from Social Committee Chairman Lion Jeff Craddock.
Lions Grand Show 2024
8th June 2024
Thank you for your support; a great opportunity to bring the town together to have fun, support local charities, businesses, and our talented young musicians and dancers.
We look forward to seeing you again on 14th June 2025!
Kenilworth Lions – Changeover Dinner
July 2024
Kenilworth Lions thanked their outgoing President (Steve Luff) and welcomed their incoming President (Sue Meads).
Kenilworth Lions Support Transport Costs for Primary School Swimming Lessons
May 2024
Kenilworth Lions Club CIO are delighted to be able to support the local Primary Schools with substantial donations toward the costs of providing swimming lessons to school pupils in the Kenilworth area for the year ahead. £2,000 is being provided to each of seven schools. As there is no longer a pool available in Abbey Fields pupils are being transported to diverse locations around the county at considerable extra cost. Funds for this would normally come from the schools operating budget and it is a requirement that all pupils are taught to swim. We hope that this will go some way to easing the financial pressures on the schools and parents.
President Elect Sue Meads commented that the Lions are delighted to be supporting an important youth programme in the community.
Progressive Melvin Jones Fellowship
Peter Thomas receives the Progressive Melvin Jones Fellowship from Lion President Steve Luff at Kenilworth Lions’ Club Meeting on Monday 13th November 2023.
Melvin Jones Fellowship award
Lion President, Steve Luff, was delighted to present the Melvin Jones Fellowship award to Phil Sylvester at our October 2023 club meeting.
Lion President, Steve Luff, was delighted to present the Melvin Jones Fellowship award to Malcolm Trewick at our July 2023 club meeting.
Good news for good causes!
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