Each year expired medical kit and equipment is discarded or kept for training purposes. While many of these items remain perfectly suitable for use, we are unable to use them in real life settings.

Your support recently extended beyond the Hampshire and Isle of Wight borders, as we sent boxes of expired medical supplies worth up to £5,000 to the Ukrainian forces fighting on the frontline that would otherwise be thrown away.

Kit and equipment

In November 2023, pre-packaged boxes containing a vast array of medical supplies, including syringes, gloves, breathing tubes, blast dressings, swabs, bandages, forceps, blood giving sets and ventilator circuits, were sent to the frontline. Two of the boxes contained purely paediatric items.

In addition to the boxes, four old syringe drivers have also been sent to help save lives amid the ongoing conflict.

Unfortunately, much of this kit can only be ordered in quantities of hundreds, whereas we may only use 20 per year, and so there are supplies that go beyond their expiration date.

However, this kit will prove invaluable to those risking their lives in the ongoing conflict.

Sent to the frontline

The items were transported to Poland by World Extreme Medicine, where they are sorted and distributed to the areas in Ukraine where they are needed most. It is expected that the boxes may have already hit the frontline, having left our Airbase in Thruxton, Andover, on Tuesday 21 November.

Aly Targett, who was pivotal in leading this project on behalf of the charity, said:

“I am extremely pleased that we have been able to donate to World Extreme Medicine and provide much needed medical equipment to the people of Ukraine. We generate an unfortunate, but inevitable, number of expired items.”

She added: “As soon as I realised this option was out there, I felt sure that we could help. It is a great solution for everyone. We are so grateful to our supporters, who are now enabling life-saving missions in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and in Ukraine’s towns and cities.”