The chairman of the North Coast 500 tourist group had to spend time sheltering in an air-raid shelter in Lviv during a mercy mission to war-torn Ukraine.
David Hughes was involved in a charity run to the former Soviet state to help in the country’s defence against the ongoing Russian invasion.
The P4P charity drivers who made the long journey to Ukraine.
As a volunteer he helped Scottish charity Pick-ups For Peace (P4P) with its mission to take off-road and pick-up vehicles to Ukraine for use in a wide range of emergency purposes.
David’s convoy – the 17th to have made the journey – set off in November and handed over the 500th vehicle.
There were 27 vehicles in the convoy, which included drivers from across the UK as well as some who had travelled from the Netherlands and even one from North Carolina in the United States.
David said: “I was alone in my vehicle, a wonderful 20-year-old Toyota Land Cruiser, and set off from Edinburgh, collecting supplies in Kelso. I was carrying motor oil, AdBlue, a power generator, PPE and, sadly, body bags.
“Then we headed to Newcastle to catch the overnight ferry to Amsterdam. From there it was on to Leipzig for an overnight stay and then on to Wroclaw in southern Poland.
NC500 chairman David Hughes and Mark Laird, who was a founder of the P4P charity.
“We all made our own way to the first rendezvous point in Wroclaw, staying overnight there to get to know each other – a great group of people. Setting off the following morning, we reached the Poland-Ukraine border by mid-afternoon, and then spent three or four hours going through border checks.
“By the time we were all through the crossing it was dark.
“Our final destination was the centre of Lviv – the largest city in western Ukraine. This was about 50 miles from the border crossing and we had a police escort with blue and red lights flashing the whole way. The instruction from the police was, ‘Hazards on, headlights on, stay as close as possible to the vehicle in front, no gaps for others to pull into and don’t stop for anything!’. It was great fun – and what an adrenaline rush.”
David had completed a 1215-mile journey from Edinburgh to reach the City Hall at Lviv, where the P4P team collected all the supplies.
“The following day we had an official handover ceremony with the city and regional mayors, a representative from the British Embassy, and various senior Ukrainian Army officers – plus a military band,” David said.
A band welcomes the volunteer drivers to Lviv.
“We also had the opportunity to mix with and chat to Ukrainian Army members and to local people. They left us in no doubt at all about how useful and important the P4P charity vehicles and supplies are – and these convoys also give them a tangible sign of the support they have from the UK and other places.”
David, a retired chartered accountant, first visited Lviv in 2008, when one of his Scottish clients, Angus farmer Mark Laird, asked him to help look after his farming interests in Poland and Ukraine.
Mark was one of the founders who set up the P4P charity in 2023 to deliver vehicles and supplies to Ukraine. The off-road vehicles are either donated to the charity or the charity raises funds to buy them. They are then loaded up with donated supplies and driven across Europe in convoys.
David added: “We were very conscious that the war wasn’t far away. On our last night in Lviv we spent a few hours in an air raid shelter because the Russians had decided to send over a few drones and missiles. It was a real air raid.”
The drivers returned home safely the following morning, taking the bus from Lviv to Krakow and then flying home to Scotland.
“Doing something like this is truly humbling,” David said. “It brings home just what an amazing thing Mark and his colleagues have done in helping to set P4P up and organise convoys; it introduced me to a group of great people prepared to give their time and accept the risks of taking part in the convoy; and it was abundantly evident from the warm welcome we received just how important these convoys are to Ukraine.”
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