Long Days, Short Nights on the Road Sleep was rare—our standard modus operandi on missions across Ukraine. Exhaustion became a constant companion, with far more hours behind the wheel than in bed. Brothers Chris and Mark Standley are somewhere in Europe! Team spirit inside the Fire Truck, Chris, Mark and Ryan Simon and Sophoia, ready to roll out for...
Setting Off Once More Defying sleep, dodging Russian bombardment, and relying on the extraordinary goodwill of firefighters—past and present—Actions Beyond Words has completed its second convoy of fire trucks to Ukraine this year. That brings our 2025 total to four fire appliances delivered, all privately fundraised, thanks to the generosity of supporters around the world. Neil and Ryan...
Somehow, Friday morning rolled around, and it had been a week since we’d left England. The air raid sirens had silenced, at least for now, and it was time to deliver our final fire appliance. For full transparency, we’d arrived at the firehouse the night before, but in the interest of keeping things in chronological order,...
It was a bright and sunny morning as the team packed the support vehicle, grabbed a quick breakfast, and readied themselves for the road ahead. Hard to believe we were already five days into the project - how could it be Tuesday already? Fourteen hundred miles behind us, and another five hundred still to go...
There was a common theme to the start of our first full day in Ukraine: waking up in Uzhhorod with bleary eyes, snooze buttons hit more than once, strong coffee, late showers, and hastily grabbed breakfasts. Our Rotarian counterpart had kindly arranged a tour of the historic city for those keen to explore, while others...
It’s almost unfathomable to begin writing this. Just 14 days ago, two firefighting appliances that had left Norwich some 30 hours earlier, carrying a team of four dedicated current and former firefighters, and a retired NHS CEO as well as Diss & District Rotarian, arrived in Medyka, Poland. They had crossed Europe through days, nights,...