HIOWAA donates medical kit to Ukraine

The air ambulance charity, which provides emergency air transport services to parts of southern England, has assembled a number of pre-packaged boxes containing a range of medical supplies.

These items include syringes, gloves, breathing tubes, blast dressings, swabs, bandages, forceps, blood giving sets, and ventilator circuits. Two boxes exclusively contain pediatric items.

In addition to the boxes, four of HIOWAA’s older syringe drivers have also been sent to Ukraine.

The combined value of all the medical equipment is around £5,000, and all items remain suitable for use according to UK standards.

HIOWAA explained that many of the items included in the supply boxes can only be ordered in ‘quantities of hundreds’ despite the charity often only using ‘20 per year’ in some cases. The items being donated would normally risk going beyond the expiration date, ‘yet will prove invaluable for those risking their life in the ongoing conflict’ with Russia.

The items left the charity’s airbase in Thruxton, England at the end of 2023, and were transported to Poland by World Extreme Medicine. There, they are sorted and distributed to areas of Ukraine where they are needed most. It is expected that the boxes have already reached the frontline.

“I am extremely pleased that we have been able to donate to World Extreme Medicine and provide much-needed medical equipment to the people of Ukraine,” said Aly Targett, a member of HIOWAA’s medical team who helped lead this project.

“We generate an unfortunate, but inevitable, number of expired items. As soon as I realized this option was out there, I felt sure that we could help. It is a great solution for everyone,” she added.

HIOWAA recently won Fundraising Team of the Year at the 2023 Third Sector Awards.