A Rosneath man has described his first twelve months delivering humanitarian aid in Ukraine as “relentless”, but the harrowing scenes will not put him off offering support in any way he can.
Ewen Cameron, who now lives in Huddersfield, set up ReactAid in response to the Russian invasion last year, initially transporting goods and medical supplies to the war-torn country.
Since then, the former DJ and music manager’s aid effort has grown into an humanitarian operation which sees him deliver support to communities across Ukraine.
It's the fear of letting people down that keeps me going. I’ve said I’ll help, so I’ll do whatever it takes. I can’t cope seeing these people suffering.
Ewen Cameron, founder of ReactAid
Ewen has trained now carried out training to become a certified medic – handling pre-hospital care - and has branched out into air evacuations to the EU and UK after forming links with pilots in Poland.
ReactAid also received a new ambulance last week from aid organisation Saving Ukraine 2022, and is currently home in the UK kitting the vehicle out before arranging its shipping to Ukraine.
Ewen said his time on the ground has been “hectic”, and that he has had very little time off since he last spoke to the Advertiser in August.
Despite working independently, he has built up connections with fellow aid workers in the country, including NHS midwife Wendy Warrington and former police officer Craig Borthwick, who continue to support his efforts.
He added: “We’re a network and, although we’re independent, we’re entirely reliant on each other.
“It’s like our own little family of brothers and sisters where we bicker and have quarrels and disagreements.
“We’ve had some friends who have been injured and killed doing evacuations. They’re really targeting medevacs and people like that.
“Having to reassess how we do everything isn’t really ideal, but that’s just the challenges of the environment we’re in.”
The past year has been packed with “poignant moments” for Ewen and his band of volunteers, such as the evacuation of UK fighter Shareef Amin who was severely injured in a bomb attack in Odesa.
However, he recalled one moment which hit him particularly hard near the Belgorod border in eastern Ukraine.
During the Kharkiv counter-offensive, which was launched in September last year, Ewen and other aid workers moved in behind the military as they pushed forward.
He said: “It was honestly like a Spielberg movie. The wheels of the helicopters were nearly touching the vans, they were flying that low.
“The people who came out, we managed to get them food and all that. But there was this one lad who kept calling me ‘uncle’.
“He must’ve been about two years older, if that, than my eldest son. I just thought, ‘this could be my kids or my friends’ kids’.
“We were in all our protective gear and they were just in tracksuit bottoms. That was a real weird moment for me realising how desensitised these people were to the brutality.”
As a father-of-two, Ewen describes the act of going between home and the war-zone as a “fine juggling act”.
His sons Oscar, 6, and Reuben, 5, miss their dad while he’s gone, but Ewen said they are “positive” towards it and “cope really well”.
He sees his efforts in Ukraine as protection of not only those living and breathing the realities of the war, but also the future of his own and other people’s children.
Ewen added: “This is a world problem, it’s not just a conflict abroad. I don’t think they’re going to break the Polish line, but if it ever got that far, all of our worlds would change so much.
“I would be so angry with myself if that was us and I didn’t do anything about it. I’m trying to remember that what I’m doing isn’t normal, but what we’re fighting for is normality for everyone else.
“Evil isn’t the person who is doing it; evil is the people who sit by an allow it. Whoever’s doing it clearly isn’t right in the head, so their actions are wrong.
“But for people who are sound of mind to say, ‘oh well’, I can’t deal with that so I have to do something about it.
"If us supplying a village with food, medical supplies, body armour, and anything that’s non-military in preservation of life it means that village can support the troops better.
“It’s about keeping that concrete foundation there for the real heroes and the real warriors and keeping them going. If it came to our shores, we would have to do the same for our army.”
Ewen said he continues to receive strong support from his home in Rosneath, and has also received donations from the Olde Christmas Shoppe in Helensburgh who ran a fundraising raffle.
To donate to his efforts in Ukraine, go to ReactAid's Crowfunder page.
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