Colten Care donate essential healthcare items to New Forest for Ukraine
Colten Care staff are helping a Lymington-based charity maintain a lifeline for elderly people who face the most extreme hardship and danger in war-torn Ukraine.
New Forest for Ukraine (NFFU), set up and run by volunteers in the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion, delivers tons of humanitarian aid to the country every month amid a growing, increasingly desperate need.
Among donors who have come forward to lend support are team members at three of our homes, two in the New Forest and one in Longham near Bournemouth.
They are actively recycling surplus items from older people’s care here by gathering them at our Ringwood warehouse and then offering them to NFFU.
Photographs from an elderly’s people shelter in the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, along the Russian border, show donated bed rails and overbed tables now in use once again.
Other items donated from our homes and sent to Ukraine include walking frames, crutches, shower chairs, clothes, bedding and unopened nutrition drinks.
They are among thousands of aid supplies, including food, hygiene and medical first-aid items, gathered and shipped by NFFU with thanks to donors in Hampshire and as far afield as Birmingham and Eastbourne.
A quarter of Ukraine’s 39 million population is aged over 60, a group aid agencies say is disproportionately affected by the war.
Older people are often the last to leave frontline territories for a number of reasons and in Kharkiv region, which borders Russia, there is an especially acute need due to depleted healthcare facilities and growing numbers of displaced people.
According to the UN, people aged over 60 accounted for nearly half of civilian deaths near the front in 2024.
And the most recent figures indicate the number of internally displaced people across Ukraine has risen steeply, from a previously reported 3.7 million to now close to five million.
Estimates indicate injuries from the war have led to more than 75,000 people becoming amputees.
“The Ukrainian people need our help now more than ever,” said John Allison, lead trustee for NFFU. “With usual facilities increasingly out of action, Ukrainians are setting up makeshift shelters for elderly people as well as children and families. They are doing their best to care for people with all kinds of complex conditions from dementia to bomb-related injuries that require amputation.”
One Kharkiv facility receiving support is a care shelter called Big Family or Velyka Rodyna, run by charity Through The War which was set up by Olga Kleytman, an architect. The shelter cares for more than 50 elderly people and has to make use of a domestic kitchen to prepare and provide food.
Seeing images of donated items in use at the shelter, including a homeless, bedbound person holding a Colten bedrail and another using an overbed table, have been poignant and emotive for Colten Care staff.
The three homes that repurpose and donate items are Linden House in Lymington, Kingfishers in New Milton and Fernhill in Longham.
It was former Linden House Home Manager Lorraine Bell, now managing Fernhill, who was the initial driving force behind the homes’ involvement.
Lorraine said: “When I was at Linden House, there were two Ukrainians in our team. They told me about their husbands fighting in the war and the plight of their families, friends and other people they knew in their country, from children all the way up to people aged 90 living with dementia. When they were speaking on the phone, they could hear bombs going off in the background. I always felt for them. We got talking about what we could do here to help those left with nothing because of the war.”
Lorraine has a connection with NFFU through one of its volunteer co-ordinators, Sandra Quinn, and with the support of Linden House and the other homes, the pair began to arrange regular collections of mobility equipment, clothes and other surplus items that could be repurposed for Ukrainian shelters and hospitals.
Our warehouse team in Ringwood, including Matty Davitt, Driver and Operator, now gather and take the items to the NFFU sorting hub in Lymington.
As with all donations to NFFU, the Colten donations are packed into huge pallet boxes and loaded onto lorries for the overground journey to Ukraine.
John said: “Our volunteers do a great deal of collecting, sorting and palleting. It’s like a commercial logistics operation without the usual industrial machinery involved. We’re recycling and shipping boxloads of items that would otherwise go to landfill and taking them to hospitals, care homes and shelters right across Ukraine. We have no official funding whatsoever and we rely entirely on our 100 or so volunteers. We have around 25 pick-up points across the New Forest from where we take donations to the Lymington sorting hub.”
Two articulated lorries, each packed with 52 huge pallet boxes of medical supplies, generators, clothing, bedding, non-perishable food and other requested aid, were sent from Lymington in April.
While the bulk was much needed aid for families and individuals in distress, both lorries carried a large volume of pet carriers, food and treatments to assist with animal rescue.
The lorryloads weighed a combined 18,500 kg, taking the overall volume shipped since NFFU began its work to 524 metric tonnes, the equivalent of 71 articulated trucks.
Transport is arranged in association with Ferndown-based haulage firm Logiscom.
Reflecting on the work of NFFU and the contribution of donors such as Colten Care, John said: “We are a small organisation trying to make a big impact. Colten Care is taking a lead with us in the care industry but we are keen to engage with others in the sector too. Our message is to please do what you can to donate. We only work directly with people in Ukraine who tell us what their needs are. They’ve told us that the most vital humanitarian aid we can provide is food, hygiene and medical first-aid supplies. There is great demand for walking frames, shower chairs, bed rails, walkers and unused nutrition drinks. One way or another, these items have a use.”
Lorraine said seeing the images of people in the Kharkiv shelter resting on and using Colten equipment was powerful. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “These are human beings, just like us, who deserve to be valued and respected, but are caught up in the most devastating and extreme circumstances. Seeing our donations in situ was a moving, poignant moment.”
A poem expressing gratitude to NFFU has been written by shelter volunteers in Kharkiv and translated from Ukrainian. It reads:
“When the war closed the sky, and the flames reached the houses,
They came to us not only with words, but with a sincere heart, like a brother.
From New Forest For Ukraine, distant friends, but closer than many.
They bring hope here, where everything was lost long ago.
They send warmth to every family,
Medicines for mothers and babies,
Support, for those who have lost their loved ones,
And faith, for those who are no longer happy.
Because true friends do not ask,
Whether it is profitable to help.
They appeared in the worst days,
To extend a hand to you.
And we hold on, thanks to them,
Because we know: in this darkness
There are bright people, there is a family,
Which will not abandon you in trouble.
With sincere gratitude, your team of volunteers. Please bless Ukraine.”
For more information on volunteering or donating money or goods to New Forest for Ukraine, visit www.newforestforukraine.org.