John Shackleton, 83, is preparing to deliver an ambulance to a humanitarian organisation in Moldova next month.
If you’re not familiar with Mr Shackleton’s work, he’s been delivering ambulances to hospices and hospitals in Europe since 1990.
The Harrogate man has since delivered 47 of them to an exhaustive list of countries, including Albania, Kazakstan, Armenia, Slovenia and Bulgaria.
To raise money to pay for the ambulances, John and his team chop down trees in need of felling all over Harrogate that they dry out before selling as firewood.
He’s currently selling a large barrow bag of oak for £90, much lower than the market rate, and it includes delivery within the Harrogate area.
He said:
“I’ve been chopping logs this morning. At my age, and after my heart attack, it’s hard work.”
The price of second-hand ambulances has risen sharply since the covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine from around €12,000 to €24,000.
Mr Shackleton sources ambulances in the Netherlands but he’s struggled to buy one due to a shortage.
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In a couple of weeks he will set off to Europe, with a crew that includes his grandson and a German TV crew, and he’s optimistic that he’ll be able to buy one in time.
He added:
“We’re going to quite a big Christian organisation in Moldova. I’ve got my team, all we need now is an ambulance.
“I never thought I wouldn’t be able to buy one. But the story of my life is I’m always optimistic”.
If you’d like to buy some firewood from John to help him buy an ambulance, give him a ring on 01423 871255 or email johnshackleton@aidtoeasterneurope.co.uk
John Shackleton, 83, hoping to deliver one final ambulance to Eastern Europe83-year-old Harrogate legend John Shackleton has a twinkle in his eye when he considers one last trip delivering ambulances to Eastern Europe, something he’s done through his charity Aid to Eastern Europe for over 30 years.
“My daughters say ‘come on, think of everyone else’, but I’ve been kicking my heels for the last two-and-a-half years due to covid. I’m getting older and the years are going by quickly.
“I have enough money to go to Amsterdam to buy an ambulance and I’ll be in Georgia within a week or two, but do I take the chance? It’s a big decision. I really want to do it.”
If you’re not familiar with John’s work, he’s been delivering ambulances to hospices and hospitals in Eastern Europe since 1990. He started after seeing upsetting TV images of orphans in Romania following the death of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu.
He’s since delivered 38 ambulances to an exhaustive list of countries, including Albania, Kazakstan, Armenia, Slovenia and Bulgaria.
To raise money to buy the vehicles, John chops down trees, cuts lawns, mends bicycles — anything to raise the £12,000 to £15,000 it costs to purchase an ambulance — which he usually buys from auction in Amsterdam.
John chopping down trees to raise money for an ambulance. Credit – The Ambulance Man (Facebook).
He said:
“I fly into Amsterdam but they sometimes take the stretcher out and make you pay extra. Invariably, when we tell them its a charity we get around that!
“We then bring it to Harrogate, fill it with medical supplies and find two co-drivers. We sleep in it, drive day and night, and deliver it right into the sticks, miles away from civilisation.
“We leave the ambulance, hitch hike to the nearest international airport, come back to Harrogate and do it all over again.”
Harrowing scenes
John is moved to tears when he describes the harrowing scenes of human suffering that he’s witnessed, but is comforted by the knowledge that he has helped people less fortunate than us in Harrogate.
Many of the countries he’s visited have been riddled with poverty after the fall of the Soviet Union.
In Ukraine. Credit – The Ambulance Man (Facebook).
He said:
“When I think back to some of the places I’ve been to it is very hard. I don’t dwell on it but sub-consciously it’s there.
“In the early days, we’d get to know the kids, there’s always one you’d get to know more who might smile a lot or give you a cuddle. You’d ask where he is, and they’d say, ‘oh, he died last night, he’s buried over there’.
“It was a building site and they’d take them out the back and bury them like a dog. They had nothing. You wouldn’t be human if it didn’t affect you.”
Show no fear
John has endured the trials and tribulations of the road and has clocked up tens of thousands of miles. He’s faced bribes, bandits and gunfire.
In Turkey, he said he expected to have to pay a bribe but the police wanted him to cough up the value of his ambulance, so he refused.
He and his co-drivers were thrown in an underground jail cell with a bucket for a toilet.
“They locked us up for 36 hours. I’d already given Turkey two ambulances after they had an earthquake! I was really annoyed they had the audacity to lock us up.”
John said his team was beginning to panic.
“You must show no fear. I got to the boss man, nose to nose, screaming at him, he eventually freed us. That was a little bit scary.”
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The right stuff
Driving through Russia, John was warned of bandits and not to stop during the night. He came across a roadblock with lights flashing so he had to think quickly.
“I thought, I won’t stop here. So I put the foot down and the blues and twos on.
“They jumped out of our way and fired at us. But they must have been firing in the air. A man that can’t hit an ambulance is not worth holding a gun!”
John in Poland. Credit – the Ambulance Man (Facebook).
John has had UK police officers, and his grandkids, as part of his crew, although not every co-driver that has signed up has joined with the right stuff.
He added:
“I advertised for a driver once on eBay. I said the highest bidder can come along. A professor from Cambridge University paid £700.
“But all he wanted do to when we drove through France was go to the vineyards and taste the wines. He got really ansty with me, I said ‘why did you volunteer? We’re humanitarian, this is not a holiday!'”
Helping others
When the Stray Ferret visited John at his house in Harrogate, he had his head under the bonnet putting a new engine in his kit car, which he first built over 50 years ago. He said by spring he’ll have it going again.
John has been a bomb disposable expert, mountaineer, greengrocer, a housing fixer upper and he ran an art studio. His rich life experience has given him a practical and positive outlook.
“I’ll have a go at most things. The Egyptians built the pyramids, if a man can do that, most of us can do anything if we put our minds to it.
“Some people are hesitant when opportunities arrive. I invariably say give it a go, if you have the right mentality, you will succeed.”
Most of all, John is known for putting other people before himself, and as the Stray Ferret left his home, he told us he’s pencilled in September as a possible date to deliver his 39th ambulance to those who desperately need one in Eastern Europe.
To donate and help John buy a new ambulance, email johnshackleton@aidtoeasterneurope.co.uk