Aid volunteers travel round the world - twice

PAIR RETURN FROM 14TH TRIP TO UKRAINE - AND SAY MENTAL HEALTH VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED

- By ANDY PHILLIPS

TWO aid volunteers from Plymouth have returned from their 14th trip helping people affected by Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine meaning they have travelled more than twice around the world to provide lifesaving aid.

Andy Evangelou and Maksym Litvinov dragged another two caravans across Europe, with almost two tonnes of donations crammed into the vehicles, for a journey which is more than 1,700 miles each way.

Just making the journey from Plymouth to Kyiv and back 14 times would mean they have travelled the world's circumference almost twice.

But Mr Evangelou said between picking up and dropping off donations, his trusty BMW X1 has clocked up more than 100,000 miles since he began which would be more than four times the distance around the earth.

He told The Herald: “A couple of times I went to Kharkiv too don't forget.

“The [BMW] X1 has done every trip and is still going, incredibly, so there's 176,000 miles on that.

“So that car has probably done 100,000 miles going to Ukraine and back, and travelling around, so it’s more than twice around the world.

“It’s driving and collecting, and doing everything.”

With the war heading into a fourth winter, Mr Evangelou said that when he embarked on his first trip in 2022, he would never had thought he would end up making 14 trips.

“Absolutely not I thought I would do the first trip, and help and it would all be over,” he said.

“It’s a big country, it’s not like Cyprus has been invaded and they are still waiting for the Turks to go, this is a big country, bordering Europe nobody thought it was going to go on this long.