Highland medical supplies collected by members of Inverness Culloden Rotary Club bound for Ukraine
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A cargo of medical supplies collected in Inverness were set to be on their way to help Ukrainian refugees.
It was set to be loaded on Wednesday after being collected by members of Inverness Culloden Rotary Club.
Derek McRae, who is a Rotarian, said they have been collecting medical supplies since 2019 when they got involved with Yorkshire-based charity Physionet.
They were collecting, refurbishing and recycling wheelchairs no longer needed by NHS Highland.
He said the charity’s chairman was a former Rotary colleague, adding: “Club Rotarians collect the discarded wheelchairs every two or three weeks and, when sorted, send any which require ‘fixing’ to HM Prison in Inverness.
“In addition they also collect used NHS paediatric support frames which are refurbished by Inverness Men’s Shed before sending everything to York – usually a lorry load around three or four times per year.”
Up to now the equipment has been sent to Johannesburg in South Africa from where they are distributed to hospitals and clinics in the area.
However, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a number of appeals were set up including a collection of medical supplies which was set up by Aleksandra Czech-Seklecka from Inverness.
Mr McRae said they had identified which items were suitable, adding: “To date Inverness Culloden Rotary Club have passed on five specialist medical emergency kits as well as packs of dressings etc – all given to us by MedAid.
“In the next Medics4Medics shipment to Ukraine we will be sending out around 40 wheelchairs as well as other MedAid-donated items including six bedside blood pressure monitors, and 1000 colostomy bags – all of which we currently have in our Inverness storage.
“We would anticipate a requirement for wheelchairs and other specialist medical equipment in Ukraine for some time to come.”
Mrs Czech-Seklecka said the donation was appreciated. “They are doing an amazing job and I am happy that Derek from Rotary club contacted me on Facebook offering help,” she said.
“We also got big support and donations from Lairg Medical Practice last week – Sasha Saunders contacted me through email.
“I just created the Facebook website to start sharing all information from Scotland with updates and to say thank you to everyone involved in what we are doing – Scotland for Ukraine.”
She said there was a lot of support around the Highlands.
