Nich Wolff is someone very special.

This year this volunteer paramedic has driven two ambulances loaded with medical equipment 1,600 miles across Europe to Ukraine. And one Honda sports car to be used as a "snatch vehicle" taking wounded soldiers to hospital from the front line.

All three were left as gifts which grateful Ukrainians painted in camouflage colours.

Previously Nich made four trips to train hospital staff in Afghanistan on emergency medicine and the use of life-saving equipment for British soldiers fighting the Taliban

He also took medical supplies to Afghanistan in 2011 for children born with a limb disability and worked with the charity founded by former ITN newscaster Sandy Gall to operate on and treat dozens of them.

During the Covid lockdown he was stranded on the remote island of Vanuatu he worked as a volunteer with ambulance crews practising emergency medicine and helped locals recover from a category-five tropical cyclone.

Somerset resident Nich has also worked as a paramedic in famine-hit Ethiopia and civil war-torn Haiti.

Now Nich is leading the organisers of A Modern Day Pilgrimage, an ambitious fundraiser for the elderly and vulnerable in Ukraine and Wells, in his role as chair of trustees at FMS, the charity that provides the medical services at Glastonbury Festival.

This walk will be led by Somerset's former Lord-Lieutenant Annie Maw in her wheelchair along a scenic 30-mile route from Bath Abbey to Wells Cathedral – in a wheelchair, and the Bishop of Bath and Wells is delighted to be taking part.

Breaking her spine in a near-fatal accident more than 20 years ago has never deterred Annie from fundraising for charity. Last year she ascended Glastonbury Tor in her wheelchair, carried by a crew of firefighters.

This year's challenge, over two days on the weekend of September 13-14, is called A Modern Day Pigrimage. Three quarters if the money raised will support elderly victims of Russia's war on Ukraine.

For example, pensioner Anatoly whose legs had to be amputated after his home in Eastern Ukraine was blasted by a Russian bomb.

Money raised by the walk will go to the charity which is supporting Anatoly, who loved gardening, by buying him a wheelchair and the specialised care to help him heal sufficiently to use prosthetic legs.

The charity is Humanity & Inclusion which believes "giving equal access to aid for older adults and those less able to flee is critical." It has been working in Ukraine since the Russia invaded in 2022.

The remaining quarter of the money will go to Wells Almshouses.

Annie is appealing for people to either join her on the walk or sponsor her through her Go Fund Me page gofund.me/5b3076a3

Well-known people are planning to take part in the walk, including Bishop Michael, who said: "We are supporting elderly people in Ukraine who are suffering great difficulties, danger and deprivation because of the invasion by Russia."

Anyone interested in joining the walk can email FMS's Stephanie Sutcliffe for details on

[email protected]