February 2026 marks a milestone month for the World Extreme Medicine Fund (WEMF) as it recognises four years since the international charity’s inception. To-date, WEMF has delivered nearly £5M in trauma aid and trained over 1,200 frontline medical personnel.
WEMF was founded in February 2022 by long-term Manchester resident and Advanced Paramedic Practitioner Luca Alfatti and Professor Mark Hannaford.
Born in Tuscany and resident of Manchester since 2012, Luca moved to the UK to pursue his dream of becoming a Paramedic. Luca is also an International Development and Humanitarian Leader with extensive experience in global health, education and strategy in remote, high-risk and austere environments.
Luca regularly travels the world with leading medics and volunteers from the World Extreme Medicine Fund. However, when Luca is back ‘up North’ at home in his beloved Astley, he uses the skills learned from his global expeditions to best effect by supporting the training and safety of technicians working on remote off shore windfarms and as a Paramedic for the North West Ambulance Service.
WEMF’s four year anniversary was marked by the launch of the charity’s brand new initiative, which saw leading medical experts from across the UK and overseas attend a residential training course that sees clinicians shape the future of remote medicine under extreme conditions.
The new “Ukraine Lessons Learned” programme was designed hand-in-hand with frontline Ukrainian medics and shaped by the WEMF’s outstanding volunteer faculty. The new course directly draws on what has changed in conflict medicine, especially the ubiquitous use of drones which make evacuation an extremely risky undertaking.
WEMF’s Co-Founders Professor Mark Hannaford and Luca Alfatti highlight “sadly, the reality in Ukraine will, at some point, become ours and it is important that we share this knowledge and experience widely.”
The inaugural Prolonged Casualty Care (PCC) course was held in February at the apt remote setting of Muncaster Castle in Cumbria and featured leading medics (including orthopedic surgeons, paramedics, nurses and experienced military medics) from across the UK (including the London Ambulance Service) and overseas (including the USA, Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands).
Distinguished presenters included Ukraine Medic Lieutenant Colonel Dr Roman Kuziv. Lieutenant Colonel Dr Kuziv is Commander of the Ukrainian Medical Forces and Sustainment Group East and he has pioneered advancing trauma treatment and medical evacuation of wounded military personnel in Eastern Ukraine.
In autumn 2025, the World Extreme Medicine Fund was also awarded the distinguished National Ukrainian Medal Cross for Care by Lieutenant Colonel Dr Kuziv.
Former White House Medical Officer Dr Travis Kaufman also joined the team. A retired U.S. Army Officer and former Chief Medical Operations Officer for the White House Medical Unit, Dr Kaufman has led global health, disaster and operational medicine missions in over 90 countries.
Each place on WEMF’s brand new course helped to provide invaluable funds to the charity’s critical lifesaving work— namely continuing to support frontline medics operating under the worst conditions imaginable.
Further Information
Luca Alfatti, Co-Founder of the World Extreme Medicine Fund
Luca Alfatti is an Advanced Paramedic Practitioner currently working as International Development Manager, leading on advancing first aid provisions in the global renewable energy sector.
Luca is a Fellow of Remote, Rural and Humanitarian Healthcare, Fellow of Extreme Wilderness Medicine, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Wilderness Expedition Medicine Faculty Member, ALS, EPALS, MIMMS and PHTLS instructor, Mountain Leader and Water Rescue Technician. Luca is also a Hostile Environment First Aid Training (HEFAT) instructor, delivering hostile environment training to journalists both in the UK, before deployment and in-country, during deployment.
In 2012, Luca won the Wanderlust Expedition Leader of the Year Award and was awarded a bursary. Luca used this to set up a sustainable, income-generating, community project in Antigua Guatemala to support women and children who have been victims of domestic abuse. This project continues to run to this day. Luca founded Medics4Ukraine (M4U) with Professor Mark Hannaford in 2022 and the lifesaving charity was rebranded as the World Extreme Medicine Fund (WEMF) in 2024.
The WEM Fund
The WEM Fund is a non-political, independent organisation committed to strengthening local resilience through immediate response and long-term medical support.
Since 2022, the WEM Fund has worked alongside frontline clinicians as battlefield medicine rapidly evolves. What began as an emergency response has become a long-term partnership. This work, recognised with three humanitarian medals for members of the WEMF team, demonstrates the real-world impact of building sustainable, locally informed capability.
Over the past four years, WEMF has supported the medical communities in Myanmar, Syria, Namibia and Ukraine responding to what is needed in the moment, from delivering essential life-saving supplies and trauma training, to adapting alongside frontline medics as their expertise has rapidly evolved through real-world experience.
