Kiwi aid worker Andrew Bagshaw was killed in Ukraine.
Kiwi aid worker Andrew Bagshaw was killed in Ukraine.
The father of a New Zealand aid worker who was killed in January while volunteering in war-torn Ukraine says 2023 has “been the worst year of our lives”.
Dr Andrew Bagshaw, 47, was killed alongside British volunteer Christopher Parry, 28, while trying to rescue an elderly woman in an area of intense military action in Soledar, when their car was reportedly hit by an artillery shell.
However his parents, prominent Christchurch doctors Phillip and Dame Sue Bagshaw, have questioned the official reports and posited that he may actually have been executed by Russian or Wagner soldiers.
In an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan on Sunday night, Andrew’s father Professor Philip Bagshaw said it had been a difficult year coming to terms with his death.
“Andrew was very gifted – a polymath, really. He was a near-genius, a geneticist working on abnormalities of the genetic code and so on… He was really into animals. In fact, one of the things that immediately endeared him to the Ukrainian people was their love of animals.
“He was a very quiet fellow. His biography is called The Quiet Hero, and I think that sort of sums him up.”
That biography, released in August, tells the story of Andrew as a brave and principled idealist who risked everything to travel from Christchurch to Ukraine amid the Russian invasion.
Andrew Bagshaw's parents Dame Sue and Phil. Photo / RNZ
“He was between jobs and he was watching TV. And he just said to us one day, ‘I think what’s happening here is immoral’, and he booked his air tickets to go – and that was it,” Prof Bagshaw told Cowan.
The book is raising money for a trust in Andrew’s name that will help those in the war-ravaged nation.
“I’m sure he would have approved of that. He really loved the Ukrainian people. I mean, it’s well-known that he saved over 500 of them. And so we’re trying to help them with the real problems that they’re having at the moment.”
Elsewhere in the interview on Real Life, Prof Bagshaw spoke about his career in medicine, founding the Canterbury Charity Hospital, his unlikely first meeting with his wife Dame Sue while dissecting a corpse.
He also spoke about how his strong Christian faith has sustained him throughout the trials of life.
“[Faith] has certainly helped a lot of times, when there are speed bumps along the way, there’s no question about that… I think the important thing is that life is not meaningless – it has meaning, it has purpose, and we forget that these days.
Andrew Bagshaw was volunteering to assist the people of Ukraine by delivering humanitarian aid. Photo / RNZ
“I’m very keen on philosophy, and it took Kant a hundred pages to say what Christ said in one sentence, but his view that we must not use people as means, but as ends in themselves, is a very important concept.
“If you’re a Christian, and you believe that life is important and that everyone is of equal value, then you must believe that helping people is the highest calling that you can possibly have.”
Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7:30pm on Newstalk ZB or listen to the latest full interview here.
