TV producer retrains to save lives in war zones

A wildlife producer who worked with David Attenborough has set up a charity after a "life-changing" experience travelling to a war zone.

Fergus Beeley, 63, from Malmesbury, Wiltshire, used to work as a BBC producer in Bristol before retraining as a medic in Somerset and then travelling to Ukraine.

During his time, he encountered the "stark differences" in emergency care which inspired him to set up a charity that sends trained UK paramedics to war zones across the world.

Beeley said: "Having trained as a medic and been in a situation where you realise you really are saving someone's life is a massively life-changing moment."

Beeley said he worked on programmes including Life of Birds with David Attenborough in 1998 and BBC Planet Earth in 2007 before making the "mad" decision to help in Ukraine after the war broke out.

"I would say there are transferable skills. Now, instead of silver cases with cameras and sound recording equipment, we send out paramedics with medical supplies and diagnostics equipment," he said.

When the war broke out in Ukraine, he said he felt desperate and did not know how to help.

"To leave an edit and volunteer to help the wounded in Ukraine in early 2022 for a few weeks was madness and I have no idea what came into my head." Beeley said.

"The experience of the first trip to Ukraine was life-changing and when I came back to the UK it was clear to me that there was going to be a new direction in my life and the first step was to qualify as a medic with South Western Ambulance Trust."

He said he realised that paramedics in the UK have a "high benchmark of qualification".

"That's something I realised would be really valuable not just in the Ukraine but worldwide," he said.

At the end of 2024, just weeks before the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, his charity called Medevac Frontline was approached by the World Health Organization to support an emergency medical response.

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