CCP Newsletter - Our First Ten Years!

IN APRIL 1995 we bought our first ambulance and Mags and Ken Whiting of Glossop agreed to drive it out to Belarus with the Irish convoy. From the day they arrived in Belarus Mags and Ken became committed and crucial members of the charity, going on to drive five more ambulances, lead four convoys and be an important part of all our work.
The following year we bought 19 ambulances from Greater Manchester Ambulance Service! Many of these went across to Ireland to be serviced and prepared for delivery but we sent eight to Belarus during 1996. That Autumn Mags and Ken led our first independent convoy, supported by Kevin Edwards and Ken Kendrick from Liverpool, who have since made many aid trips to Belarus.
The Royal Mail loaned us one of their trucks for the aid delivery to Belarus in 1997 and paid all the costs of the trip. We were able to send out a large number of defibrillators and one of the ambulance drivers who went on the trip was a paramedic who was able to demonstrate their use to the delighted doctors in Gomel.
In 1999 we lost our warehouse at Glossop so our aid collection was concentrated on the warehouses in Selby and Merseyside. New rules in Belarus meant that we had to load the aid several weeks before sending it to Belarus if we were to get it cleared for delivery. This prompted us to buy our own 38 ton truck, and we had also been given a smaller truck by Women’s Aid for Peace. Maintenance of the vehicles was carried out by John Gater, one of our trustees, and LinPac at Selby also helped to keep them on the road.
Sandy McLaren, our National Treasurer, took a break from pouring over the books to take part in one of the Autumn convoys. He is seen here with Allen Tosh and Kevin Edwards.
From 1999 Mike Allison became heavily involved with the collection and delivery of aid and the following year he took over all the paperwork and planning for the aid trips as well as the intensive physical work of collecting aid from various parts of the country, storing and sorting it in the warehouse at Selby and organising the loading teams for each trailer. By this stage we were taking four aid deliveries every year of two, or sometimes three, articulated lorries and a seven and a half ton truck donated to us by KeyMed.
In recent years as the volume of aid and the number of convoys increased we have had generous regular support from individuals and companies:

Linpac of Featherstone in Yorkshire continue to provide free parking for our four large vehicles and their staff raised over £6000 in 2004 to sponsor the November convoy
The Campey family of Selby provide warehouse space for our storage and loading operation and David Campey has supplied and driven his own unit to tow a trailer on four of our convoys.
Paul Campey heads his own motor garage business, Waincliffe motors of Leeds, and has maintained our four large vehicles at no cost to the charity and has driven on seven convoys.
Ian Lacey, of Lacey Haulage in Burton on Trent has provided and driven his unit also on seven convoys. We have a superb team of loaders including regular support from the staff at the O2 communications company in Leeds and members of our groups.

Our range of aid and the number of recipients continues to grow and we have included aid from other charities in our loads on several occasions.
Our aid work in the UK and on convoy is complimented by our office team in Gomel who prepare the paperwork, manage the customs procedure and generally look after the convoy teams during their time in Belarus.
We could not have achieved half of what we have in Belarus without the support of an excellent team in Gomel and we are very grateful to Igor Trizno, who headed our work in Belarus for several years and to Liena Fedarchuk who is now responsible for all our projects in Gomel Region.