From the heart
But we will continue his heroic aid work in Ukraine to keep his memory alive, says Christine Parry
We had a call from Chris in late March 2022 letting us know he was in Poland and not at home in Cheltenham. He had been staying with me and his dad, Rob, in Cornwall in February while he recuperated from a small eye operation. During that time, Russia invaded Ukraine and we noticed he was completely immersed in the news about it.
We found out after he had gone to Poland that he had been touring the Army and Navy shops, buying gear to help the Ukrainians. He took it back to Cheltenham, where he was working as a running coach, gave up his job and got a flight to Warsaw. He told us not to worry as he was just helping with logistics.
Chris was always active and sporty – and very principled. Even from a young age, he would support the underdog. I suppose it wasn’t a surprise that he felt compelled to go, although he had never done aid work before.
In Poland, Chris met an American, Brandon, who had a company in Ukraine but wasn’t allowed over the Poland/Ukraine border to check on his employees in a hire car. Chris said he’d buy a van and they would go together. When we spoke to him or messaged him in the first few months, he said he was based on the Polish border as he didn’t want to worry us. But we later learnt he was staying with Brandon and his team in Lviv, and Brandon sponsored him to continue his aid work. It was there that Chris met a Ukrainian woman, Ola, who became his girlfriend. We were pleased he’d met someone and he seemed very happy.
We knew Chris would want to do as much as possible to make a difference, and he ended up at the frontline helping people to escape. He told our daughter, Kate, 31, what he was doing but she was sworn to secrecy to stop us worrying.
One day in June, Chris called and his phone identified the location as Ukraine. He reassured us that while he was entering Ukraine to evacuate civilians, he only did so if the army had given the go-ahead. But I think it was more chaotic and dangerous than that. He was so driven, it would have been futile to ask him to come home, although knowing what we know now about the situation he was in, of course we would have done.
We watched the news, and Chris made us promise we wouldn’t look at the videos he was posting on Instagram. We didn’t, and I had to try to carry on with everyday life and not think about the risks. It was so hard for Kate, who knew he’d been in Ukraine longer than we had realised. They had a very close relationship.
Chris kept in touch with us with messages and calls on WhatsApp. Some days he’d say he was tired, and I would worry. B
