"You are heroes.  You are brave as soldiers. Come to visit in a free Ukraine. Slava Ukraini."

It was messages like this, coming up on the convoy's whatsapp group, from Ukrainians awaiting our arrival, that made me realise the value and reality of what I was doing - and want to do again. I was driving a clapped-out Mitsubishi pick-up truck 2,000km in two days, from South Wales to the Polish-Ukrainian border, as part of a convoy of 16, in early April. The plan? To leave the trucks there - each one packed with trauma and first aid kits - and fly back to South Wales. The trucks would be picked up by Ukrainians, patched up in a Mitsubishi factory inside Ukraine and prepared and distributed for a variety of humanitarian uses, from make-shift ambulances to escort vehicles for civilians fleeing harm. They would all be put to use on the frontline within days.

The background.

Mine was the third convoy to have left Cwmbran in South Wales, in what has become an on-going effort to get second-hand British trucks to Ukraine. British trucks are valued because Russians fire at the left hand seat, because second-hand vehicles sell for less in the UK than on the continent, and because they are stronger, being made for a cold/wet climate. 

Like many efforts to support Ukraine, this one grew organically, and started with a friendship. Dave and Ceri Carlyon from Cwmbran met a Ukrainian called Yaroslav at a trade show in Birmingham four years ago when they had adjacent stands for their businesses. Both Dave and Yaroslav are scout leaders, and they became friends. Fast forward to the Russian invasion, when Yaroslav asked Dave if he could find some 4x4s and get them to the Ukrainian border. Dave and Ceri started with two, and raised enough money during that trip for their first convoy. 

Five convoys later, and things have been formalised and streamlined. Yaroslav has a charity called Wheels of Victory, to pay for the trucks, and Dave and Ceri, have their own charity, Ukraine Train (Ukrainetrain.org), raising funds to get them there. Since the start of the war, over 120 trucks and 16 tonnes of trauma kits (provided by the Australian scouts) have now made the journey from Dave's business premises in Cwmbran where the convoys start out. 

How will your money be spent?

My aim is to get 10 trucks to the Mitsubishi factory in Ukraine. The trucks will be paid for by Yaroslav's charity and found  - through 2nd hand car dealerships - by Ukraine Train. The money I raise here will pay to get those trucks to Ukraine. 

Things have developed since the first convoy. Trucks are now driven to Antwerp, where they are put onto low loaders, and driven to Ukraine that way. It saves costs and time, and the trucks are in better shape when they arrive. However, it still costs £955 per truck  - in diesel, insurance, ferries, accommodation, transport home for volunteer drivers, and low loaders for taking the trucks from Antwerp to Ukraine. 

My final plea to you...

Please support me in raising £9500 - the cost of getting ten trucks to Ukraine. We know they are saving lives. Dave constantly receives reports of of people-carriers getting children to safety, pictures of trucks converted into ambulances. Requests for vehicles keep coming, as Yaroslav's team, like all Ukrainians, continue their fight undaunted. And I will personally be on that convoy. I wouldn't miss it for the world.