Young people donate ambulance from Guernsey to Ukraine

The three friends are converting a 4x4 into a casevac ambulance for use on the frontline in Ukraine

Three young people from Guernsey are converting a used car into an ambulance, or casevac vehicle, before driving it to Ukraine next month.

Fergus MacInnes, Daisy Livesey and Emile Gonder are refurbishing a Mitsubishi Shogun, with the help of mechanic Craig Whitley.

The friends will drive the vehicle to the front line in Ukraine where it will be used to bring injured soldiers to safety.

They have also organised a fundraising rave to cover the costs of medical equipment.

'Dire need'

Fergus MacInnes, 18, was inspired to contribute to the work of Mission Ukraine after spending two months volunteering in the country earlier this year.

He said: "I saw while I was out there just the number of casualties that came in and I heard countless stories of those who didn't make it in for lack of casevac vehicles."

"There is a dire need for casevac vehicles."

Emile Gonder, Daisy Livesey and Fergus MacInnes are refurbishing and converting the car with Craig Whitley's help

He enlisted the help of student and DJ Daisy Livesey, 20.

She has organised a rave on 19 July at Canvas Nightclub in St Peter Port to raise funds for the medical equipment to be installed in the vehicle.

Ms Livesey said: "War is awful, and I think doing something positive in these situations is really important, and facilitating an ambulance is fundamentally saving lives."

Student Emile Gonder, 20, is completing a 13 mile (21km) Spartan race challenge with his brother and sister and is looking for sponsorship towards their goal.

"It's a cause that we all deeply care about and I think it's just a really good opportunity to do something meaningful that we can be proud of," he said.

'Supporting their passion'

They said they needed £6,000 to cover the total costs of the ambulance conversion, fuel and registration fees.

Mechanic and Canvas nightclub manager Craig Whitely helped the young people to find and buy the car second hand.

He was refurbishing it for free and fundraising himself to help cover the costs of the car.

"Seeing the passion that these three have got, to try and do their bit to help out, I will try and support them in any way I can, because it is for a good cause," he said.

Once refurbished the vehicle will also have bulletproof glass, armour around the engine and a stretcher to make it ready to function as an ambulance.

Mission Ukraine is British-Ukrainian charity which has delivered more than 30 casevac vehicles to Ukraine so far.

This vehicle would be used to rescue injured soldiers or civilians and take them out of the danger zone to safety quickly, when they would be transferred to more expensive medical vehicles.

Mission Ukraine said it welcomed donations of more 4X4 vehicles which could be converted.

The three friends hoped to drive the vehicle across Europe to Ukraine at the end of July.