Surrey Charity helps fund Ukrainian Pickleball
Surrey Stands with Ukraine has raised over £6,000 for rehabilitation by sponsoring the Ukrainian Pickleball team
The charity Surrey Stands with Ukraine has raised over £6,000 by sponsoring the Ukrainian pickleball team.
The team will play in the English open today (August 7th) in Telford as part of the wheelchair and Parapickleball event.
They are made up of several players who have sustained serious injuries following the Russian invasion in 2022.
Since the start of the invasion Ukraine has lost over 450 athletes.
The money raised for the team will be put towards rehabilitation, an area which the founder of the charity Roy Deadman says is critical.
"I mean, rehabilitation can be overlooked, one thing is getting urgent treatment, which is medical aid. The other thing is what happens then after that, you know what happens when you've lost a leg?
The urgent treatment is is hospital to save your life, but then what happens when you get home? What's the process then and and how do you support that process?"
Deadman hopes that this partnership will help provide inspiration as well as financial aid to those in Ukraine.
"It's all a combination of physical port support, mental support. Knowing people actually care and have you back, just knowing that there's people outside of Ukraine as well that haven't given up on Ukraine, that haven't given up on its people, to know that is massively powerful, right?"
Deadman paid tributes to one of the athletes on the team called Yevhen, who worked as a blacksmith before the war.
"When the war started, he decided to voluntarily go and join the army.
And he was out there on the front lines and in one particular heavy firefight, a piece of shrapnel went into his back and got stuck into his spinal cord.
He doesn't remember much after that, but he basically woke up in hospital, got rehabilitation support and managed to get involved in this sport and now plays for the Ukrainian pickleball team."
The team is made up of 10 athletes, Deadman says that the fact that they are even here can demonstrate a beacon of hope.
"They're travelling to the UK with our support to come and play here in the English Open. What's really key is seeing other people that have gone through what you've gone through and are now in a different space in their life, regardless of what's still going on in their country."
Surrey Stands with Ukraine are still calling for people to get involved to raise funds.