Following a good night’s sleep, we were ready to get back to Medyka. We headed straight to Medyka High School, which was being used as a refugee camp where people could stay for a maximum of three nights.
Luckily, pets were welcome too and this is where Kevin’s story comes to life.
Kevin arrived at Medyka after his family had fled Kyiv. They were young and had no plans apart from desperation for a job to take care of Kevin. He himself was timid and cold, so we kitted him out with a beautiful bright orange coat, muzzle and loads of fun with a ball – he was sorted for now.
Whilst I was throwing Kevin a ball, I was messaged on Twitter by a British lady from Barcelona who happened to be in Medyka too.
She wanted my help to find families to host in Barcelona and it was the right place, right time for us all. The next day, Kevin and his family were on their way to a new life – always proudly Ukrainian, but safe elsewhere for now.
Since their journey to Barcelona, I’ve been updated that they received a beautiful welcome from the residents in Barcelona and Kevin’s mum has been bought an oven by the community.
She had a muffin bakery in Kyiv, now destroyed by bombing but, because of Kevin and the power of compassion, she has set up her own business providing cakes to the ex-pats she now lives amongst. I get teary every time I talk about her and Kevin. I hope that one day we can meet up and smile together, as the trauma etched on their faces last time is too much to explain, but they’ll always have a special place in my heart.
Back at the Medyka border, we prepared bags of essentials for dogs and cats, and filtered through the crowds waiting to enter Poland. As much as I felt a mammoth sense of reward for helping individuals like Kevin’s family, this part of our operation was something that I was most proud of.
These people had left their homes with very little, some had carrier bags of their dirty clothes with their toothbrush sticking out the top and young children had their beloved ragged teddy that was clearly going to be clung on to for the foreseeable.
Being able to hand them a bag for their pet and sweets for the kids brought me a wave of emotion every time a bag left my hands.
How would I feel being offered kindness when my home was being decimated by missiles? I don’t know.
Some couldn’t accept it, some couldn’t comprehend the extreme difference of being in a war zone fighting for life to being shown kindness, and that was okay too.
