Southampton hospital medics fly 21 Ukrainian children with cancer to England

Staff from Southampton Children's Hospital flew out to the children in Poland on a specially-chartered plane

A team of hospital medics have flown out to Poland to bring 21 Ukrainian children with cancer to England.

The nine staff from Southampton Children's Hospital made the return trip on Sunday where they took the children into their care.

The hospital said: "The families were so incredibly grateful and the stories they told were horrific. We were just so pleased to do something to help."

The children were in Ukrainian hospitals when Russia invaded.

The doctors and nurses and technicians from the hospital's paediatric critical care teams flew on a specially-chartered plane to bring the children, along with their families, to England so they can continue with their treatment.

Dr Michael Griksaitis who led the team of nine said: "We had a very quick turnaround preparing bespoke bags of kit."

He said staff also rallied round to gather "all the spare intensive care unit equipment that we have in Southampton, because we had no real idea of what we might find when we landed".

"Getting the children and their families back to the UK so they can continue with vital treatment and receive whatever further medical help they might need, was the absolute priority," Dr Griksaitis said.

The evacuation was co-ordinated by the US-based St Jude Children's Research Hospital who had been caring for the children.