Flytipping, fly tipping, fly-tipping, different ways of spelling the same old nuisance. This nuisance, ‘time-and-money waster,’ appeared overnight a couple of days ago.

It sparked off a request for a miracle to occur. Odd!

“Simon, nothing is sensible where I am. We rely on miracle after miracle, small triumph after triumph”.

I posted the photograph on face book and a friend of mine spotted the wheelchair in the foreground. Funnily enough as soon as I myself spotted the wheelchair I thought of my friends in Piraeus. I thought, I bet they could use this. And they could. They commented on the photo almost immediately.

Two of my friends are working, (volunteering) at the hastily set up refuge at E2 terminal in the port of Piraeus, 8 miles South West of Athens in Greece.

My friends said they could do with fifty wheel chairs. Perhaps a comment born out of high emotion for the circumstances there but a comment I thought I would take to heart.

Hundreds of displaced ‘People’ arrive daily at the port of Piraeus and lack of coordinated organisation means volunteers end up doing some amazing fill in work. Hundreds of sandwiches are made, hundreds of blankets are given out, tents are found, water distributed, medical attention is sought for those in need, advice given where it can be given, shoulders are there to cry on, arms to hug with, simple eye contact and smiles are shared to recognize other Human beings in situations we can only start to imagine.

Knowing what to do in these situations can be difficult. Many people’s first emotion is to help, and ‘help’ these volunteers do. More often than not it is highly emotional, very tiring, often confusing, sometimes dangerous, highly rewarding, very depressing. Emotions and feelings all rolled into one.

So would fifty wheel chairs help out there? Would it be a sensible idea to try and get them there?

Miracles can often be simple. If my friends think fifty wheel chairs out there now can help then I will try and help. Keep it simple. Keep it easy. Make no promises. But have a go.

Decent collapsible wheel chairs can be bought on the web for less than £60. I have e mailed the firm to enquire if they ship to Greece and if so how much.

I found a wheel chair on the side of the road. It would not surprise me if there are workable wheel chairs dotted around households not being used in the UK, across Europe, in Greece itself. Perhaps the Red Cross have a number stored in warehouses ready for appropriate use. Maybe Medicines Sans Frontieres have some too, maybe the UNHCR have some. It would not surprise me if a mini miracle could occur for our friends at E2 terminal in the port of Piraeus, Athens, Greece.

I am not going to try ‘too’ hard because if this is going to work I believe it will work easily.

I will post this blog on my website, on twitter and on face book. I will share it with ten organisations. If you feel like sharing it with others please do. If you think you have the answer, please contact me.

If I had the money I would go grab that wheelchair off the fly tip, pump the tyres up, give it a clean, a squirt of WD40 and jump on the next plane to Athens to start the ball rolling. But I don’t have the money!

So writing will have to do. Done correctly it’s probably equally effective.

Fifty ‘decent’ wheel chairs to my friends in Piraeus? Let’s give it a go.