Suffolk man delivers 125 tons of supplies to Ukraine
Oliver Horsman volunteered to drive the supplies to Ukraine
Oliver Horsman from Suffolk has driven 1,555.3 miles to Ukraine in 5 days to deliver supplies to those in need.
They started off in Suffolk, travelled into Europe through France, onto Vienna and then into Romania before crossing into Ukraine.
We asked why he decided to volunteer for this: "My wife is Lithuanian, so because of that being slightly closer to home, plus I have friends in the Ukraine.
"The stars aligned to allow us to do this perfectly. So it's almost like I'm not a religious person, but I believe there's something out there.
"And when I first did this, so it was only 10 days ago, last Monday, I decided to put a post on Facebook that went viral because I was being a Co-pilot with a friend of mine who wanted to drive a van.
"So I thought, well, let's generate donations and that got shared thousands of times.
"My nieces café called Folk in Bury St Edmunds volunteered to be a donation centre. The volume of donations that started coming in on the first day was about 10 tons.
"And other areas across Ipswich... They generated multiple tons of donations.
"My sister Gina runs her own charity called, GeeWizz and she said I think you need some help.
"So through her charity we managed to then get volunteers to come and sort these boxes and sort it all out for distribution and also then generate volunteers from haulage firms to take this overflow of donations that we obviously can't handle on our three trucks.
"And from that point, we have sent 12, seven and a half ton trucks and 440 foot trailers already to to Ukraine for aid. Plus, our three containers are there."
We asked what it was like to consistently drive for 5 days: "The journey was challenging mentally. The first day we drove for 25 hours."
He said it isn't as simple as choosing to drive to Ukraine, and he had lots of hurdles to go through.
"People think they can just drive a van over or a car over and be able to hop over all these borders and everything is fine."
When Oliver arrived at the Hungarian Romanian border they had to show their humanitarian documentation.
"Obviously we're not of the European Union anymore, so there is import export issues, so we need something called a GMR number a Goods Movement Number...to be able to allow us to get onto the Eurotunnel train from England to go to France."
One thing which made the journey longer was safety: "Romania is very dangerous at night time and going over the Ukrainian border at night has its own security issues. We waited till the morning."
When they reached Ukraine Oliver contacted their Ukrainian army contact, who would then reload the supplies into their own trucks so it could be taken into the Ukrainian cities.
We asked how many tones they have transported so far: "We've generated over 125-130 tons in 10 days and distributed it to the people of Ukraine."
Although many have come together to support Ukraine, Oliver firmly believes more should be done.
"This is a plaster on a massive scar and we're not even scratching the surface. So to say this is job done is is ridiculous. It's an absolute humanitarian crisis and we need way more than that."
"That level of donations need to be going out every single day to have any sort of effect.
"I had a letter from a Ukrainian children hospital with a massive need for medical equipment and medical aid for the children in these hospitals because the Russians are just cutting them off."
Oliver told us about the "everchanging needs of the Ukrainian people."
They are calling for medical supplies and more " incontinent products for the elderly, there's a massive elderly population in Ukraine and and those needs are not being met."
He shared what these donations mean to those in Ukraine.
"We've had letters from the bunkers in Kyiv, from one of our friends, sisters saying that this is giving them hope...There are praying for us.
"And they were sharing across the people in the bunkers to build up the morale. So it's just that extra drive plus.
"And we're all human, this can happen to absolutely anybody. This is a worldwide tragedy, not just a tragedy far off...This can happen to any country in Europe, any country in the world. And you know, I should hope and expect the same response, if that happened to us here."
Oliver told us that this process has changed his outlook on the world: "You know, sat on a sofa is watching our big screen TV, eating loads of food and seeing my daughter leaving food on the plate. I just felt so uncomfortable for the first time, just thinking we live in such a a gluttonous world where we just wasteful and don't appreciate anything. It's just, It's definitely rocked my my mindset on how we live and how we should live.
"We should be more inclusive of everything. Like one person success and they're hoarding everything and you know, so little can do so much.
"If we just shared more and and also we're more open to people, even just in general society and then I think the world will be a better place.
"I think the response that we have seen from the Ukrainian efforts of everybody across Europe, not just England, but every country across Europe really gives us hope for humanity."
Oliver continues to make plans to travel to Ukraine with more supplies and is trying to raise money to buy four by fours for the Ukrainian army so they are able to pull people out.
He also said he is: "open to people contacting me if they want to do this and they want to get involved in some form."
"I can help either a freight refine what they're doing or point them in the right direction."