Rescue worker Valentina 'has no time for fear' - Read this story on Magzter.com

Daily Mirror|March 12, 2022

THERE is barely a crack in the steady voice which belies her 21 years. Not a falter to remind you she is little beyond her teens. Only sometimes does she hesitate, as if to push her fear deep down.

- EMILY RETTER

EXCLUSIVE

But for a moment, when Valentina Cherkai describes night times curled on the floor in the dark Red Cross office she has moved into in Kyiv, you glimpse her vulnerability.

After long days volunteering in local hospitals, bringing aid to underground shelters, and this week evacuating civilians amid hellish scenes in heavily bombed Irpin, she and her colleagues simply crave human touch.

“We try to hug every evening just to keep the stress out” she admits.

Two weeks ago, Valentina was a medical student, married, happily living close to her parents.

Now she is alone, her parents and grandparents in a safer area, her husband away. She abandoned her home from the first day of war to sleep on the floor with colleagues.

This story is from the March 12, 2022 edition of Daily Mirror.

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This story is from the March 12, 2022 edition of Daily Mirror.

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