DCH staff deployed to help people in Ukraine

24 February

We recently welcomed home two members of #TeamDCH from Lviv in Ukraine following a deployment with frontline medical aid charity UK-Med. Biomedical Scientist Andy Walbridge and Physiotherapist Lauren Eve voluntarily registered with the charity and were asked to go and help provide medical care, training and support to the people of Ukraine.

Andy was the first microbiologist to be deployed to Ukraine with UK-Med and spent six weeks working in both the west and east of the country. Andy was able to help people deal with complex wounds and manage infections, as well as assess the equipment needs of laboratories to enable future investment by UK-Med.

Physiotherapist Lauren was deployed to the National Rehabilitation Centre for three weeks and helped treat civilians and wounded military personnel, as well as teaching physiotherapy students over there.

Before their deployment, Andy and Lauren’s paths had never crossed. Andy arrived in Lviv first and spoke to DCH’s Microbiology Department to see if they could donate some equipment. He then put a call out through UK-Med to see if anyone else was travelling over who could collect and deliver the supplies and, by chance, Lauren was also about to be deployed! They met whilst out there and have kept in touch since they returned home.

Well done to both Andy and Lauren for carrying out vital work under extremely challenging circumstances.

Lauren featured in a segment about UK-Med on the BBC One Show.