Teenage patient donates hearing aids to Ukraine
A routine appointment with University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP), audiology team set in motion an idea that sent Charlotte Tait and her dad travelling across Europe delivering aid to those in desperate need in Ukraine.
Charlotte Tait, 17, a student at the Deaf Academy in Exmouth, was undergoing her yearly hearing review and was curious about what happens to hearing aids that are no longer needed. On finding out they could be reused, Charlotte and her father formulated a plan to take them to the Ukraine.
The conflict in the region means medical supplies are in short supply, in particular parts for hearing aids are near impossible to source. In orphanages across the Ukraine, deaf children, already traumatised by the war, have been left in silence.
Charlotte said: "As a deaf teenager, I couldn’t imagine not having access to the tools that I rely on in everyday life. I think young people in Ukraine must feel isolated from the outside world already, so for deaf children there it must be even worse.”
Charlotte and her father, Darren, made the six-day trip in March and delivered more than 100 hearing aids, which were donated by UHP, to the Polish border as entering Ukraine was too unsafe. Within 4 days of arrival the hearing aids were in the ears of children that needed them. So far Darren has completed 11 trips with Charlotte accompanying him on 2.
With the conflict now entering its second year, the need for medical supplies is intensifying. “We will take anything, as they have nothing.” Charlotte explains, “Not even simple bandages. We have now sent out 136 vehicles and are setting off again on June 26 for our next trip”.
“On our last trip we managed to take an incubator,” Darren added. “There is an increasing problem with orphaned or premature babies, they don’t have equipment to keep them alive. They desperately need any old hospital supplies.”
The journey to Poland took 3 days each way in a convoy of 12 vans travelling up to 14 hours a daily in the snow. So far around 111 vans have made the journey but both Charlotte and Darren are eager to take more. The close relations they have formed with local Ukrainian charities allows them to distribute the aid directly to where it is needed, without it having to sit in a distribution centre.
Charlotte and Darren are already planning the next trip which will take place later this spring and are appealing for more supplies. “We are eager for any donations; your out-of-date medical supplies can be used and are very much needed. Anything you offer can and will be put in the van and made use of.”
