A Great Chesterford health aid mobiliser has been awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours list for his leading role in shipping 33 million Covid vaccines to Ukraine along with other medical supplies.
Fergus Drake is the chief executive of not-for-profit international development organisation Crown Agents, which has partnered with the Ukrainian Ministry of Health for the past 25 years.
In addition to providing the vaccines, Fergus was instrumental in providing medicine and equipment to 88 neonatal centres and maternity hospitals across the country, and delivering more than 650,000 items of emergency medicines and equipment into Ukraine's health system.
Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, Crown Agents has formed dedicated teams to raise funding and source and send urgently needed medical equipment.
Fergus said: "I am deeply humbled and grateful to be recognised in the 2023 New Year’s Honours List.
"I would like to dedicate this award to the incredibly brave and inspirational Crown Agents team in Ukraine, London and around the world.
"They have worked tirelessly since the outbreak of the war, often without electricity and running water, to bring life-saving drugs and medical equipment into the country.
"I would also like to thank our partners the Ukraine Ministry of Health, the Ukraine FCDO Team and all our donors for their generous support."
Working with the public and private sectors, along with foundations and philanthropists, Crown Agents has supplied more than 350,000 medicines, 97,000 trauma kits, 153,000 medical devices, 50,000 food kits, 36,000 hygiene kits, 400 oxygen concentrators, 192 generators, and 91 premature baby kits.
The mobilisation of medical supplies has been supported by multiple organisations, including the Ministry of Defence, Pfizer, GSK, AstraZeneca, Save the Children and Christian Aid.
Prior to the war, Crown Agents had already soruced and shipped Covid vaccines for the entire population, as well as reforming Ukraine's drug procurement processes - saving the Ministry of Health over £55 million - and working intensively in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Fergus has visited Ukraine's capital Kyiv and the region regularly since the war began, meeting with senior representatives of the Ministry of Health and visiting hospitals to assess the level of need.
Interim Crown Agents board chair David Richardson said: "We are thrilled that Fergus has received this award which recognises his leadership of the Crown Agents’ emergency Ukraine response.
"The agility of Fergus and his team in supporting the Ukrainian Government and people in the face of Russian aggression is built on the long-term partnering approach that we adopt in all our work around the world.
"Underpinned by the Crown Agents’ values of courage and integrity, we will continue to work to make a real difference to people facing humanitarian crises."
Fergus told the Saffron Walden Reporter that his family have been "hugely supportive" of his work, and his children sold pin badges at school in support.
His three oldest children, Orlando, 13, and 12-year-old twins Sophia and Luella all attend Saffron Walden County High, while his younger son Xavier, 10, goes to Great Chesterford Primary School.
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