Ex-marine back in Wolverhampton after Ukraine mercy trip

Dave Walters has described his mission in helping refugees fleeing Ukraine by taking tons of dry food, medical supplies, sanitary and cleaning products to refugee centres.

Using money raised through his successful social media appeals and JustGiving page, Dave bought supplies from wholesalers in Kraków.

Since returning last week, he said it feels surreal to be back home: "I've been having lots of people coming up to me saying congratulations and thanking me - they've seen my story on Facebook and heard it on the radio."

Dave said the amount they spent and donated in Ukraine is in the region of £40,000 – totalling 14 tons of supplies that he and his friends delivered to women's and mixed refuge centres and the Poland/Ukraine border.

He said the busyness of the border depended on whether bombs were being dropped on nearby towns in Ukraine – in which case there would be a large amount of people trying to flee.

"Driving away from that border and back to normality just felt completely surreal," he said.

"We can't forget that there is still a war going on in Europe, people are losing their homes, friends and family, and we need to keep helping them however we can.

"We were well looked after there, people appreciated what we were doing.

"While we were there, we dropped off two vans full of provisions at two separate refugee centres and at the border, because even though they had worldwide aid there, the military and hospitals still needed supplies."

Dave said they got in contact with a Polish lady whom Dave knew from Wolverhampton, and she agreed to put them up for the night, before helping them plan a trip to the wholesalers to spend some of the money raised through JustGiving.

At that one warehouse, they spent £3,500 on 3.5 tons of supplies – he explained that food is cheap over there.

The things that were most needed were milk, sugar, pasta, water, and lots of washing and laundry products. They took it all to the town hall in Bochnia, which is a pick-up point for supplies, where people in the area can come and take what they need.

Dave said they met the Mayor of Bochnia while they were there, who was pleased with what they were doing to help.

After that, they returned to the wholesaler, stocked up, and travelled to a monastery in Bochnia that was housing 90 women and children refugees who needed milk, eggs and butter.

They also helped transport people to safety. In a Facebook status Dave posted: "We have unloaded half of the provisions in Krakow this morning and are now travelling to Hrushiv on the Ukrainian border which is 100km from Lviv to unload the rest.

"Alina is travelling with us, she is Ukrainian, she left her car in Hrushiv when she fled following the Russian invasion.

"She has arranged to meet a family there to bring back to the refuge in Kraków, where we stayed last night.

"The husband will drop his family off to us at the border then he will return to defend his city of Kraków.

"There are apparently two daughters and the mother."