Trip to take ambulances from Warwickshire to Ukraine 'intense'

Mark Pritchard-Jeffs said he had done "nothing like this sort of venture" before

A man who paid £9,000 for an old ambulance says a mission to take it across six countries to help people in Ukraine was "pretty intense".

Mark Pritchard-Jeffs and friend Alf Rajkowski - who also bought an ambulance - drove them from Hampton Lucy in Warwickshire to Poland.

Medical supplies were also delivered when they handed over the vehicles 30 miles (48.28km) from the border.

Mr Pritchard-Jeffs said he heard the vehicles got to where they were needed.

His group had planned to transfer them to an ambulance service in Poland, which would make arrangements to cross the border with Ukraine.

The two men made the journey under the Ambulance Aid project, which used ex-NHS ambulances, and they were joined by two co-drivers, so they could take rests.

It began on Wednesday morning and Mr Pritchard-Jeffs said "31 hours travelling non-stop... was a pretty intense experience, one I'll never forget".

One major threat to the mission's success came when they "misfuelled" one ambulance, he said.

He stated: "We put petrol in rather than diesel and actually there's a.... German garage attendant who drew our attention to it.

"We realised afterwards that if he hadn't raised the alarm, we'd have written one of the ambulances off and that ambulance and the medical supplies would never have got there."

The vehicles were handed over 30 miles from the border with Ukraine

Mr Rajkowski said he had spent £8,000 on a decommissioned ambulance and his friend paid £9,000.

Medical Aid Ukraine in the West Midlands stocked them.

Mr Pritchard-Jeffs stated the group was "absolutely exhausted" when they arrived and he did not know at the time if people receiving ambulances "would successfully get to where they wanted to".

But he added that subsequently he found that was the case.

Mark Pritchard-Jeffs and Alf Rajkowski donated two ambulances to Ambulance Aid

Mr Pritchard-Jeffs, who retired last August, said he had been a fundraiser for charities for a long time, but had "not really been a doer".

He added: "I'm very proud of what I achieved and what the team achieved.

"My grandfather fought in the First World War. My uncle fought for this country as well for the freedoms we've all enjoyed.

"To have made a small contribution to their [Ukraine's] resistance means a lot to me."