So much to update, and so little time! Where to begin...? Well to start, six of us met in London this past weekend and got right down to work.
$40K+ of supplies (tourniquets, iGels, trauma bandages) were already waiting for us at Jeff's flat, having shipped over the previous two weeks from all over the UK. Also beating us to London were two of our Mitsubishi L200s, ready and waiting outside Imperial College.
Meanwhile, Jeff and Max went to Birmingham to pick up the two (yes 2!) ambulances and drive them back to London. We then loaded the many boxes, plus the 14 duffel bags of gear shipped free courtesy of Air Canada, into the vehicles and set off down south.
Unfortunately, a major problem with one of the L200s made us leave it behind, but thankfully two more excellent ones had already been delivered to Dover (the faulty one is being dealt with and a contingency plan is in place to get it to Warsaw once fixed!). From there we took the Euro Tunnel to France. A quick pit stop to pay our respects at Vimy Ridge, then a long drive across France, Belgium and into Germany for the night.
Today we drove across Germany and into Poland, where we're spending the night, and tomorrow we head onwards to Warsaw. Enroute we're buying another vehicle for a different group - oh yeah, we bought that second ambulance for this other group too! I guess we didn't mention that. More on them soon.
In the meantime, we're at a total of 2 ambulances and 5 pick-up trucks for this mission, plus all the gear. We're exhausted, stressed (LOTS of challenges and setbacks), and over heated (it's HOT here!!!), but happy. It's such a privilege to be able to do this. And, as promised, if more money comes in we'll find a way to get it to paramedics on the front line!
Thanks for reading, and for your continued support. We literally couldn't be doing this without all of you <3
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