North Shields dental team launches fundraising campaign for Ukrainian colleague
The team at a North Shields dental practice has launched a fundraising campaign to raise money for a Ukrainian colleague.
The team at Ewan Bramley Dental Care has set up a Just Giving page to support Serhiy Hrybovisky. Serhiy has taken leave from work to support humanitarian efforts as the conflict rages and Ukrainian forces continue to fight against the Russians across the country.
The 37-year-old runs the Smile Energy dental laboratory in Lviv, a city in the west of Ukraine. Serhiy sent his sons and wife to safety in the Netherlands at the start of the conflict and he has been volunteering at a displacement centre in Lviv while also housing three families in his flat near the Polish border. He has also started weapons training.
When Russian forces started to arrive in Ukraine and it became clear that thousands of Ukrainians would need to flee danger, Serhiy appealed for help from his UK friends and colleagues. Ewan Bramley, the owner of the North Shields practice, and his colleague George Dandanov who studied in Lviv and has many Ukrainian friends, wanted to help.
They set up a Just Giving page to collect donations, which have been sent to Serhiy to provide vital support for refugees and those who have left their homes to reach safer places in Ukraine.
George is in constant contact with Serhiy and said that the stories are shocking. It soon became clear from the conversations, George said, that action was needed urgently. Lviv is relatively safe compared with other cities due to the proximity of the border with Poland, but Serhiy said that the city is buckling, with thousands of people travelling to Lviv every week to try to escape the atrocities. The scale of the humanitarian crisis is unprecedented and people need urgent help.
Ewan and George’s fundraising campaign launched with a £1,000 donation from the practice and the page has now raised over £2,700. The team is hoping to reach the £5,000 milestone. To donate, visit here.
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