North Yorkshire Rotary clubs fund medical equipment for Ukraine

The equipment, delivered to Zaporizhzhia through the organisation You Are Not Alone (YANA), includes 60 hospital beds, 24 mattresses, and 153 other essential medical items.

The Rotary clubs involved are Harrogate, Knaresborough, Northallerton Mowbray, Thirsk, Wetherby Wharfedale, and Wensleydale. With the help of matched funding from the Rotary Foundation, they were able to cover the full transportation costs.

Peter Thompson MBE, founder of PhysioNet, the North Yorkshire-based charity that organised the shipment, said: “Unlike our usual projects, where recipients cover the transport costs, shipments to Ukraine are fully self-funded at around £5,000 per lorry.

“Support such as we have received from local Rotary clubs is essential if we are to continue sending much-needed equipment to Ukraine.”

PhysioNet collects, refurbishes, and distributes surplus medical, mobility, and disability equipment to people in need around the world.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, the charity has sent the equivalent of 33 shipping containers to the country.

To date, more than 17,100 items—enough to equip at least three hospitals—have been shipped from the charity’s depots in North Yorkshire, Cambridge, and Bristol.