Retired midwife always delivers for RE:ACT

As a retired nurse and midwife, Shirley Smith is always ready to deliver for RE:ACT, and no challenge is too tough.

Shirley, from Chesterfield in Derbyshire, was one of our Op PACE responders who swapped the comparative comforts of their UK homes for a week of physical graft working in a Polish warehouse helping to ensure vital humanitarian aid reached Ukraine.

Working alongside our partners, Help Ukraine, Shirley led the four-person RE:ACT team at the facility in Lublin in the far east of Poland.

She said the work was hard but was rewarding as well.

“Aid was coming in from all over Europe. Our job was to work together with the wonderful Ukrainian refugees to unpack and sort the goods and then ensure they were re-packaged, collected and taken into Ukraine as soon as possible,” explained Shirley.

“When we were there, the priority was for bedding, as so many people had been forced to flee their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Now though, I know the focus for RE:ACT is to ensure people have enough to eat.”

Shirley, who was recently one of RE:ACT’s four Batonbearers at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, said she had huge admiration and respect for the Ukrainian refugees she worked so closely alongside.

“It was very much a matriarchal organisation because, of course, all the men were back in Ukraine fighting, so it is mainly women doing the work in Lublin. I have to say that having a woman on our team may well have helped us to bond with them,” added Shirley.

She continued: “One of the women was a former dancer and she told us that when the war came, she stopped dancing because if felt like all the “air had been sucked out of her” and she couldn’t perform. But now she was working with her countrywomen doing what they could to help those back home in the Ukraine it had given her life back, and consequently she had begun again and one day we watched her dancing on top of the empty aid pallets!”

Shirley said there had initially been some problems with the language barrier, but they swiftly overcame that. A smile, body language, google translate and having a couple of young women who spoke some English broke down the barriers

Although Shirley spent much of her career in the UK, she has always had an adventurous spirit. She spent eight years in the hostile environments of the Canadian Arctic and Sub Arctic with remote Indian and Inuit Communities working as a nurse practitioner.

It’s no surprise then that after such a busy and fulfilling career, she was reluctant to take retirement lying down. She’d always fancied disaster response work and after hearing about RE:ACT, she decided to apply.

Shirley trained as both a national and international responder, but because of the Pandemic, had previously only been deployed in the UK, working on flood relief and several COVID-19 related tasks.

Shirley’s skills as a Registered Nurse also meant she was called back to work during the Pandemic to vaccinate thousands of people at Derby’s Velodrome.

“Volunteering for RE:ACT is really important to me and I’m happy to undertake any task,” explained Shirley. “I absolutely love it. The camaraderie of those I have worked alongside is fantastic and I have met some incredible people who come from all walks of life.”

She added: “To be able to give something back is a real privilege and I am so glad I can do that through RE:ACT. I would certainly recommend the charity to others, and I frequently do!  Volunteering gives a real focus to life and being able to help others who may have had one of the worst days/experiences of their lives is an honour.”

Even when Shirley’s not deploying for us, she still finds time to help raise money for the cause!

She is an active member of her village’s well-dressing group. Each year they create pictures from petals and natural vegetation.

Shirley explains: “Holymoorside has three such well dressings – one made by adults, one by teenagers and one by children.  Visitors to the Peak District come to admire them and a charity is chosen for any donations. This year I am proud to say they have chosen RE:ACT because of its efforts in helping Ukraine.”