Tavistock builder Colin Clarke along with friend Adam Wrobel returned to England after helping dozens of Ukrainians reach safety through their ‘Van for Life’ campaign.

Over the course of a ten-day trip, Colin, who lives in St Ann’s Chapel, and Adam managed to transport 36 Ukrainian refugees in the ‘Van for Life’ from Lviv into Poland, including a group from the beseiged city of Mariupol in the south-east of Ukraine.

Initially only planning to transport Ukrainian refugees from the Warsaw camp to safe homes in other parts of Europe before leaving the van at the camp for other volunteers to use, Colin and Adam hit a snag when they discovered that the Poles could not take a right-hand drive vehicle.

The two friends then decided to cross the border into Ukraine and make their way to Lviv, hoping the Ukrainians may be able to take the van instead.

He said: ‘[Lviv’s] no different from walking around Plymouth - people sitting around. But there’s masses and masses of people, everyone’s been crowded together. Lots of people giving out free food, hospital stuff and there’s the Red Cross. The station is a massive hub and we pulled in and were out of our depth. People were just trying to climb onto the bus. One woman got on with two kiddies and you can’t throw them off. It’s desperation. I’d have had them on the floor, stack them two high if it were up to me, just to get them out of there.’

Over four trips, Colin and Adam were able to rescue over two dozen refugees some of whom were able to describe their experiences.

Colin said: ‘[The group of people from Mariupol] said they were on a coach about to come to Lviv and the Russians surrounded the coaches, got everyone off and put them in a great big massive field. Then the Russians sent away their coaches and they kept the people as hostages. And after that [the refugees] had to sleep, eat, lie down and stand on this field for three days while the [Russian] captain used them like a human shield.

‘After three days, the Russians just left, left them on the field. and then the coaches came back, picked them up and took them to Lviv.’

The two men took their mission one step further when they were asked to transport medical equipment to a town over one hundred miles east of Lviv.

Colin said: ‘[Doctors] needed these medical supplies so we drove about 150 miles east of Lviv to get them to these doctors who met us in a garage car park. It was a case of stopping and getting these boxes out to them, but they were telling us what they need. It was very very hard brutal information.’

In response, Colin has set up ‘Shoebox for Life’ and is now asking West Devon residents to pack much-needed medical equipment in a shoebox for doctors on the Ukrainian front-line.

Last month Colin and Adam drove out to a Warsaw refugee camp in a 17-seater van - dubbed the ‘Van for Life’ - to help Ukrainian refugees reach new safe homes across Europe.