On Saturday 13 December, Convoy4Ukraine felt honoured to be included in a Christmas Celebration at the United Reform Church in central Cambridge. The creativity and vibrancy of the local Ukrainian community was on display, with colourful traditional costumes, crafts, music, dancing, food and drink.
Ukrainian and British guests came together to sing carols and watch the Vertep nativity show. The raffle tickets that we sold will help fund the ambulance and aid that we are taking to Ukraine on our next convoy.
On Sunday 7 December, Convoy4Ukraine took the opportunity to visit the Plast (Ukrainian Scouting organisation) group in Fulbourn, led by local Ukrainian Nataliia.
After some Ukrainian scouting songs, Tom gave a brief talk about our upcoming trip, and we headed outside to show the scouts three of the ambulances we’ll be taking to Kyiv in February. This proved very popular, and included lots of button pressing to test out blue lights.
The scouts were also able to give us advice about what British sweets would be most appreciated by the ambulances’ new drivers, and will be writing cards with messages of encouragement for us to take out with us.
As it was the last scout meeting of the year, we also got to participate in some traditional Ukrainian Christmas crafts and activities, and enjoy some delicious Christmas food. Both children and adults were dressed in vyshyvanky – traditional embroidered Ukrainian shirts – for the celebration.
If you’d like to join in with some more Ukrainian Christmas traditions, make sure you join us for a Ukrainian Christmas Celebration on Saturday 13 December at Downing Place Church, Cambridge.
On the 19th November 2025, members of Convoy4Ukraine took part in an engaging fundraising talk in Royston, hosted by the Royston & District Motorcycle Club, with the Royston Town Mayor in attendance.
On Wednesday 19 November, Convoy4Ukraine had the opportunity to talk about their work, hosted by Royston and District Motorcycle Club, of which Rik is a member.
This was a “friend-raising” event held at the Royston Bowls Club, intended to increase awareness of a local charity and to connect with people who might be interested in supporting C4U in different ways – whether through donations, publicity, sourcing and maintaining vehicles, or even joining us on convoy. These events also tend to be mini-reunions from previous convoys (it was nice to see Massimo from Convoy #10 and his partner Maria), and a chance to meet new drivers and co-drivers for the next convoy for the first time – shout out to Pete Halasowski and Andy Munday!
The evening was attended by members of RDMCC, Royston Bowls Club, friends and family who had supported Convoy #10, and special guests: local Ukrainians Anya, with her son Gleb, and Cllr Luke Haugh, the Mayor of Royston.
Left to right: Tom, Luke, Guy, Adam, Jamie, Rik, Anya, and Gleb.
We took the opportunity to drive one of the ambulances that we’ll be taking out to Ukraine in February down to the venue, though sadly it was too cold to show people around.
The evening started with a talk by Tom, who explained his own motivations for founding the charity, rooted in his experiences meeting two Ukrainian mothers – one in the UK, through the Homes for Ukraine scheme, and one in Lviv. He began the talk with a number, 19,500, at the end explaining its significance: this is the number of children that have been stolen from Ukrainian families by Russia, to be “adopted” and brought up as Russian. To date, only around 1,000 have been recovered.
Following Tom’s talk, Rik talked about the convoys from his perspective as a mechanic – which types of vehicles we aim to buy, which we avoid, some of the problems (“learning experiences”) we’ve had along the way, and of course the indispensable help given before and during convoys by our two legendary Hungarian mechanics, Akos and Máté, who enjoy nothing better than fixing engines in the company of a beer or two.
After the talks, we enjoyed a chat with our hosts and guests and ate some very welcome sausage rolls provided by the Bowls Club. Thank you RDMCC members, Guy Moody, Alan Evans and Jim Grieg for hosting us, and to everyone who attended!
