A Huddersfield businessman who has completed eight missions to Ukraine is off again … this time to deliver vital supplies to the region devasted when a massive dam was blown up.

Tim Marsden and his partner Deborah are constantly organising help for Ukraine and either arranging or driving vehicles on the 3,000-mile round trip every six weeks and they are setting off again tomorrow.

They have recently managed to get 104 beds donated from Barnsley Hospital and some have already been delivered to Ukraine with the rest going imminently and in the near future.

Tim, 63, of Holmfirth, owns the St Andrews Motor Company on Leeds Road, Huddersfield and first decided he had to act after seeing the horrendous news coverage once Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 so set up Huddersfield to Ukraine Humanitarian Aid.

Once he’d been to Ukraine a couple of times he knew he just had to keep going to help.

“You can’t unsee what you see over there,” he said. “Over the last 15 months we’ve driven over and built up a trusted network both here in the UK and, more importantly, inside Ukraine. We have delivered to towns and cities such as Sokal, Lviv, Ivan-Frankivsk Uzhgorod, Kyiv, Dnipro, Kherson and Kharkiv, to name a few.

Tim has forged a lot of close friendships and bonds with groups working to alleviate the suffering in the country so he knows the aid is going where it is needed most and is actually getting there.

He added: “We just know we have to keep going until the money or support we get runs out. It’s heartbreaking dealing with people living in such appalling circumstances. I’ll be there for six days on this trip and you just don’t sleep when you’re there. I’ll be busy making sure everything gets safely to where it should be.”

The hospital beds will be going to Ukrainian hospitals that have been badly damaged in the fighting and to hospitals that simply can’t get hold of them any other way. Tim’s team is also donating 3,000 bed sheets, £1,000 towels, medical supplies, incontinence pads and oxygen ventilation masks.

For this coming trip they have teamed up with a group called Fast Aid Support Transport (FAST) based in Grassington, North Yorkshire, who are also taking vehicles to leave out there including a fire engine, four pick-ups, a van and a four-wheeled drive Transit which will be converted into an ambulance.

Tim will be delivering a refrigerated van donated by FAST which will be used to repatriate the bodies of Ukrainians killed in the country’s east back to the west to be reunited with their families for burial.

Besides the refrigerator van, the departure from Leeds Road tomorrow includes a 45ft articulated lorry, a 7.5 ton truck and another van all loaded with cargo bound for Ukraine.

The aid is going to several places and one will be Kherson where the dam burst, claiming many lives and also wrecking homes and livelihoods. Supplies that Tim and others are taking include medical aid, baby milk, baby food, hay fever relief, mosquito spray, long life foods, diarrhoea tablets, water purification tablets, water filters, detergents, wellingtons, nappies, spades, tents and tools.  

The best way people can help Huddersfield to Ukraine Humanitarian Aid is by donating money and a GoFundMe page has been set up at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-send-104-hospital-beds-to-ukraine

People across the UK are also knitting hats, gloves and warm clothes for Ukraine in readiness for the winter already and hardly a day goes by when more doesn’t arrive at Huddersfield to Ukraine Humanitarian Aid.

When Tim was last in the Ukraine in May the group’s convoy also included a message of solidarity and sportsmanship. Sheffield Eagles rugby league team has twinned with a team in the western city of Lviv, Lviv Tigers, and had donated a full strip to try to help develop the sport in Ukraine.

When Tim was last in the Ukraine in May the group’s convoy also included a message of solidarity and sportsmanship. Sheffield Eagles rugby league team has twinned with a team in the western city of Lviv, Lviv Tigers, and had donated a full strip to try to help develop the sport in Ukraine.

Tim said: “Sport is still being played in Ukraine despite the war and rugby league is a growing sport out there so the amateur clubs would love to be twinned with amateur clubs over here. I can help to arrange that if any clubs from Huddersfield are interested.”

To keep up-to-date with Huddersfield to Ukraine Humanitarian Aid go https://www.facebook.com/HuddersfieldToUkraineHumanitarianAid

Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content and copywriting.