Published on: 5th April 2022
We're incredibly proud of one of our nurses who travelled to the Ukrainian border to support those fleeing the conflict.
Wendy Warrington, from Bury, is a safeguarding families specialist practitioner, and spent three weeks in the Polish town of Przemysl, seven miles from the border with Ukraine, to work with a team of medics as a first responder team for three weeks.
It was a big decision for Wendy, but one she is very passionate about.
Read more about Wendy's incredible work on the Granada Reports website.
Speaking before the trip, Wendy said:
“I have Polish family, I’m very involved in our Polish community and can speak and read Polish. We’ve been collecting and sending aid to the Ukrainian refugees as a community so that’s how it started. What’s happening is terrible and I just felt compelled to go and try to make a bit of a difference and wanted to do more.
“I’ve been granted special leave from work to do it and I’ll be travelling to Poland on the 13th March. My work there will be entirely self-funded, I’m not going as a charity or as an NHS worker – I’m going as me. I just want to help people who have been forced to flee their homes with nothing through no fault of their own.
“I’m being given accommodation, but my husband says I’m either very stupid or very brave going on my own to a town I have never been to before, in -6C weather, with people I’ve never met – but I’m ready to help and there has been some very generous support on a JustGiving page I set up and from people giving me money personally.
“In less than 48 hours people donated nearly £5000, it was unbelievable. Everything the money is being spent on is documented and accounted for and the company my husband works for have volunteered to pay for the shipping of the aid we’ll buy. Along with some other business leaders, he is setting up a group that can help fund aid being sent over too.
“It’s been hard to get some aid through, as with us not being a part of the EU there’s lots of red tape barring certain things being sent over. Me going there will help relay back exactly what aid is getting where and how we can make the process more effective.
“When I get there, I’ll be based at a warehouse that’s been turned into a makeshift refugee camp where I’ll work in shifts with the medical response team. I will be working with two Polish third year medical students providing immediate first aid.
“I am an experienced, qualified registered nurse and midwife with current registration. I can also provide antenatal and postnatal care if needed and have been provided with a delivery kit and resuscitation equipment by Hatzola Manchester Jewish ambulance service in Salford. I also received five new fetal dopplers from Huntleigh diagnostic company for me to use and distribute when I am there.
“I had a bit of a wobble, not because I am scared as I’ve done all my research – I was initially planning on going into Ukraine, but I was told it’s too dangerous to even attempt – I had a wobble because I was worried I might not be as effective as I want to be or people will need me to be.
“But I’m ready to help, I just hope I can make a difference.”