Underwood traffic officers set to make seventh trip to Ukraine with emergency supplies

Between them, the group who are based alongside the M1 at Felley, and go by the name Traffic Officers for Ukraine, made six trips last year, raising about £60,000 to donate vehicles including four ambulances, two pick-up trucks and two 4x4s.

They were also able to donate sanitary supplies, medical supplies and winter kit to support people affected by the war.

Tyler Bond, from Nottingham, Alex Brown, from Heage, John Cray, from Stapleford, Aidan Dean from Chaddesden and Matt Catto, from Nottingham, are now trying to raise a further £10,000 to help a group of villages in eastern Ukraine in need of an emergency vehicle.

Alex, a Royal Navy veteran said: “Last year, we covered about 18,000 miles on our six trips.

“As well as the pick-up trucks and 4x4s, we provided four ex-NHS Ambulances to the frontline region of Kharkiv, which were the first to make it into the region since the war started.

“We’ve had a few months of downtime with our families but that’s something those impacted by the war do not have the luxury of, so we now aiming to go back at the end of the year to continue providing assistance.

“We have started fundraising for a much-needed emergency vehicle for the Dnipro region, along with Cops4Ukraine, which will help get casualties out of the red zone and to urgent medical treatment.

“We also want to be able to take over much needed winter clothing as temperatures rarely get above zero between December and the end of February.  

“We keep going back to Ukraine as we feel the help that we give actually makes a difference. The ambulances will have saved lives, the medical supplies will have saved lives, and the winter kit will have improved people’s quality of life during the winter months. We feel attached to Ukraine as a country, and we want to help the people there as much as we can.”

To donate to the group’s latest mercy mission visit their Go Fund Me page at gofundme.com/f/alex-ty-john-helping-ukraine