The ‘Return to Lviv’ trip saw Wesley McLoughlin and Doireann Hughes journey for 10 days over more than 4000 miles, via land, air and sea to deliver ophthalmic aid to Ukraine. Between breakdowns, delays and haggling, the trip never had a dull moment. But of course, there was more to this than a humongous journey for two final-year medical students.
The planning actually started over a year earlier, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, sourcing a wide variety of valuable ophthalmic equipment from generous donors across the country. This was coordinated by Dr Peter Cackett, who had made the same journey to Ukraine some 30 years earlier in 1993 on the ‘Focus on Lviv’ trip, coordinated at that time by Mr Tim ffytche, founder of the charity Ophthalmic Aid to Eastern Europe (OAEE).
The team on departure day, outside Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion, Edinburgh, (L-R) Wesley McLoughlin, Doireann Hughes, Dr. Peter Cackett.
At the end of May, Wesley and Doireann set off on their journey from Edinburgh, travelling the country to Dover via Stirling, Ayr, Solihull, Tring and Windsor to pick up the donated equipment from opticians, ophthalmologists, orthoptists and hospitals. Donors kindly provided a variety of slit-lamps, retinal and fundus imaging equipment, and £40k worth of Kay Pictures orthoptic vision test books and occluding glasses. Ukraine has 320 paediatric ophthalmology departments, which until this trip did not have this equipment to facilitate vision testing in pre-literate children.
Once reaching mainland Europe, the adventurers took turns to drive through France, Netherlands, Germany and finally right across Poland. Once there, they were delighted to be able to make a stop at the Medical University of Lublin and visit the Kliniki Okulistyki Ogólnej, arranged courtesy of the Head of Department, Professor Robert Rejdak.
A trip to Kliniki Okulistyki Ogólnej, Lubin, Poland. (L-R) Paweł Oszczędłowski, Doireann Hughes, Wesley McLoughlin, Polish ophthalmology registrar.
Despite making it to Poland safely, the day of the handover did not go quite according to plan. They began the final short leg of the journey with a roadside hot-dog stop and had arranged to meet their Ukrainian ophthalmology counterparts in a secluded carpark at Medyka, close to the Ukrainian-Polish border, highly reminiscent of secret handovers in spy lore. Unfortunately, the Ukrainians were delayed as the Polish immigration computer systems failed that day, leading to a 5km vehicle queue to cross the Polish border from Ukraine. Undeterred, they finally managed to transfer the valuable cargo safely to a Ukrainian vehicle.
Returning to their UK-registered van, which was nearly new and had only covered just 19k miles (15% of it by them), they restarted it to find a myriad of flashing warning lights. Driving away, it gradually lost power, stranding them. With the broken hire van needing to be towed back to Scotland, they were forced to delay plans to drive home. Instead, they were given a complex route via hire car to the Polish-German border, a taxi into Germany, another hire car to Cologne followed by a flight home. After nearly 4000 miles of driving, ferrying and flying they did actually arrive safely back in Edinburgh.
They began the trip assuming that it would be a smooth journey, unlike Dr Cackett’s first trip to Lviv in ‘93, but were soon reminded that even modern technology is fallible. Thankfully though, the objective was met.
Handover with Ukrainian ophthalmologists, Saturday 3rd June 2023, near Medyka border post. (L-R) Ukrainian ophthalmology colleagues, Wesley McLoughlin, Doireann Hughes.
Both Wesley and Doireann count it a privilege to have been involved in a small way in such a generous, internationally minded, and exciting venture. Now, busy as junior doctors in Dundee and Edinburgh respectively, they look forward to assisting with future ventures, and perhaps helping subsequent batches of students to serve OAEE in a similar way.
Future initiatives to deliver more equipment to Ukraine and neighbouring countries caring for refugees from the war are planned. If you have any ophthalmic equipment or supplies that may be of use, please contact Dr Peter Cackett, Chair of OAEE, by email at: pdcackett@hotmail.com
Thank you for any support that you can provide.
