About us
Our movement was born on Friday 25th February as a united response to the outrageous news that shocked the world just one day earlier. It started with a selfless act of kindness from just one man, Alex, one of our friends, who bought an ambulance at his own expense to send to Ukraine. He started to fill it with clothes, long shelf-life products and medication. His initiative quickly spread across the community in South-West London. We also sent an appeal to the wider community for donations and dry food, or clothes people could spare.
In the first two days alone, we raised thousands and collected several truckloads of people’s generous donations, which reached the Ukrainian border within days.
What we do?
We have so far delivered well in excess of 100 ambulances to such destinations as Kyiv City Hospital, Mykhailovsky Hospital, Boryspil neonatal centre, Okhmatdyt Children’s Perinatal, Poltava, Chernihiv hospitals, Medical Plaza centre in Dnipro, Pervomaisk in Kharkiv region, Odessa emergencies services, Lviv, Kharkiv A&E, Pobuzhie Children’s, Artziz district hospital, Elderly home in Kirovograd region, 6 hospitals in Sumy region, 4 hospitals in Kherson region, 2 hospitals in Lviv and others.
Our story
The war in Ukraine is an unspeakable tragedy for millions of people and in the light of such horrific, unprecedented events, it is hard to stay neutral.
People have no electricity, they are desperately in need of medicine, food and other essentials. In particular, there is an extreme shortage of medical supplies, generators and ambulances.
The situation is simply desperate. Every single bandage, every first aid kit and every mode of transportation matters.
We can never do too much when it comes to helping save lives.
With some hospital facilities destroyed or not in use due to the imminent threat of attack and a growing number of people requiring urgent medical attention, doctors across the country are pleading for any help they can get.
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Our team
Sandy Shandro
Sandy is a former partner in the law firm Freshfields and remains a Senior Consultant to the World Bank Group in the area of law reform.
Sandy is a dual UK/Canada national born in Alberta, Canada, into a large family which had emigrated from Ukraine to Canada in 1899 as part of a major recruiting drive by the Canadian government of the day to attract Ukrainian farmers to Canada's prairie provinces. The illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia had particular resonance for Sandy, and after participating as a driver/fundraiser Sandy joined the Committee to help us in our work going forward.
Aliya Aralbayeva
On February 25, 2022, 24 hours after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Aliya Aralbayeva appealed to local mothers in Wimbledon to raise funds to provide medical aid for victims of the war. Her appeal received overwhelming support from local people. With the support of her Ukrainian-born husband, Aliya ordered life-saving medical aid and sent the first convoys of ambulances to where help was needed most. Our first ambulances arrived in Kyiv on March 5.
Aliya is an international lawyer, mother and wife who strongly believes that thanks to the support of donors from the West, Ukraine and Ukrainians will stand against this aggression.
Daniel Whitehead
Dan first became involved with ambulances when Aliya asked him to reverse an ambulance through a narrow gateway to help promote MLLU's activities to a concert audience in Wimbledon. Having driven one backwards about 50 metres Dan and his wife then drove the same one forwards about 1000 miles to Ukraine. By then Dan had caught the bug!
Away from MLLU Dan is a father, husband, singer and deeply incompetent athlete. He chairs the Academy Choir Wimbledon, is a Liveryman of the Musicians' Company, and is a trustee of the Wimbledon Village Hall Trust. In his spare time he is the head of legal for Citigroup's Issuer Services business.
Maria Botcharova
Maria was born in Kyiv and cherishes fond memories of her childhood summers spent among mulberry trees, yellow flowers, and pickled vegetables at her grandmother’s dacha in the 1990s. Although she has lived in London for over 30 years, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine affected her deeply and personally. After experiencing restless nights, she resolved to channel her energy into something more constructive and was extremely grateful to find a place with the incredible team at Medical Life Lines Ukraine. She is inspired every single day by the unwavering dedication and resilience of the doctors, volunteers, and friends she has met through this work.
In her professional life, Maria works in strategy at a leading academic publishing and analytics company. In her rare moments of free time, she enjoys indulging in amateur drawing.