The Australian’s Australian of the Year: Doctor who brings hugs and a wave of hope to war-torn Ukraine

Aid worker Alison Thompson is used to working under enemy fire and with missiles raining down from above. In fact, it’s where she knows she’s most needed.

Third Wave Volunteers founder Alison Thompson has spent much of this past year on the ground offering humanitarian support in Ukraine.

Aid worker Alison Thompson is used to working under enemy fire and with missiles raining down from above. In fact, it’s where she knows she is most needed.

The Australian founder of Third Wave Volunteers has completed eight trips to Ukraine, mostly to Mykolaiv and Kherson in the south, to bring essential supplies to recaptured villages and train soldiers and civilians in emergency medicine.

Dr Thompson’s devotion to her dangerous humanitarian work, including previously to Syria, Sudan and Haiti, has often taken her into the line of fire.

“There were times where we got to the frontline villages – and when I say frontline, I mean the Russians are less than a quarter of a mile down the road – so it’s too close for missiles, it’s artillery,” she said.

“So it’s very heavy and this is a village where they’d had 20 to 40 Russian tanks come through and it was completely destroyed.”

It was on another mission to train the Ukrainian coast guard that she had one of her closest calls yet.

“There must have been a spy in that group because we started to head off and then two huge missiles headed towards us,” she said.

“I’m just looking at the back window of the car and one goes over us and one lands in the field about 150 metres from us.”

Third Wave Volunteers founder Alison Thompson has spent much of this past year on the ground offering humanitarian support in Ukraine. Picture: Supplied

Dr Thompson originally came to Ukraine to work with charity Exodus transporting special needs orphans to safety but soon realised there was a greater need to provide battlefield medical training.

“We started to see the soldiers, who had been fishermen, farmers, accountants and lawyers, and then suddenly they had a uniform and a gun and four days training, and they’re sent to the front lines and half of them weren’t returning,” she said.

“We had to do something; a lot of us are trained in Tactical Combat Casualty Care, so we started training soldiers. We taught them how to extract patients from the red zone with tourniquets, and how to stop the bleeding.”

This grew into teaching civilians the basics of CPR in bomb shelters and making regular trips to supermarkets in Odessa to buy food and other supplies to bring to newly liberated villages. “It was just all about giving love and hugging everybody; when we arrived in those frontline villages the people were so traumatised,” she said.

“They’re not quite sure if you’re Russian or who you are, but we always wear little white hats with hearts and we walk up with our arms open and just hug them while they cry.”

Third Wave Volunteers founder Alison Thompson with soldiers who she helped train in TCCC in Ukraine. Picture: Supplied

Dr Thompson’s courage in the face of danger has earned her a nomination for The Australian’s Australian of the Year.

After a break, she will soon be back in Ukraine to continue her work. “I just love it. I feel like I‘m the happiest person I know because we just get filled up inside. I have the best job in the world.”

We encourage our readers to put in a nomination for The Australian’s Australian of the Year, which was first won in 1971 by economist HC “Nugget” Coombs. Prominent Australians can be nominated by filling out the form above, or sending an email to [e-mail]. Nominations close on Friday, January 20.