Help us let our Ukrainian friends smile again

My name is Mika and I am just an average Joe. I am part of this big wonderful family of adult figure skating.

Figure skating is a sport for all, something that can keep you fit and healthy throughout life. We are lucky to have a proper circuit with big international competitions where we meet and compete every year helping us build lifelong friendships across the world.

Just like what you see on tv...except we are a tad bit older and a tad less good!

Anyway, an important part of our family is the Ukrainian team! They are our friends, our sisters from another country.

When war hit their beautiful land, we count ourselves lucky that our family survived. However, many had to flee for survival with nothing but a passport in their hands. We all have seen and heard about the horrors of this awful, stupid war, but they lived through it. Our friends are the strongest people we know: they never complain, they remain optimistic and are thankful to simply be alive! This is just not right!

This is our turn to show them how much they mean to us! We can help. They haven't properly smiled or been happy for over a month now, and speaking to them, one of their main wish is to be reunited with their skating family, to share a beautiful passion and express themselves on ice. Oberstdorf, the biggest international adult competition is coming up in May. Some of them could make the trip but they need our help.

Nadia has been working tirelessly behind the scene to secure rights for all skaters to enter and a dress for one of them.

Now what we need is money to pay for an apartment for 5 people for the week of competition, our friend Daria needs skates (they were left behind when she had to flee), entry fees, money for food. We would also be looking for dress donation/lending so our friends can feel at home on ice.

We are not asking for much: we are a huge family! Skaters are spread far and wide across the world: if 1000 of us give just £1 or £2 it will go a long way to help our friends: our friends who just want to smile again, our friends who just want to share their passion, our friends who just want to feel joy again...just for a week.

If you have read this far, thank you so much!

The friends you will be helping are: Olena Zlobintseva (Kharkiv), Valeriia Yas (Kiev), Alyona Shevchenko (Kharkiv), Anastasia Olkhova (Kiev), Daria Yakovenko (Kharkiv), Oksana Mazurko (Kharkiv).

If we do reach more than our target, any funds we may raise above target would go to help coach Yulia Dun and Elena Kolesnik who have decided to remain in Kharkiv and Kiev to help loved ones.