The co-founder of Factory Records, Alan Erasmus, has returned to Manchester following his humanitarian mission to Ukraine - but he is continuing his charitable work for families torn apart by the war.
The 72-year-old Woodhouse Park-raised actor spent almost week in Lviv in the west of Ukraine after telling shocked friends: "I've fought bullies of one kind or another all my life." And he made good on a promise to help in the fight against Vladimir Putin's Russian forces.
He flew to Poland and travelled by bus over the border to Ukraine as war raged. He clarified at the time: "My plan wasn't to come and shoot people: I'm 72, my eyesight is crap, my hearing is even worse. It was always to identify areas of donation."
But after spending a week in Lviv he learned his 93-year-old mother has become ill and so returned. "I was told to come back and got the next plane. It was an instruction. I didn't have a say in it," laughed Alan.
While he was in Lviv, he told the M.E.N. he came across a centre for soldiers and civilians who have suffered disability which is run by the international charity Legacy Of War. He has decided to help the charity.
He started a JustGiving page which has already raised £10,000 for the centre which makes wheelchairs for people who have lost limbs in the conflict. He also aims to help an orphanage over the border in Poland where Ukrainian children are being sent by providing Ukraine-to-Polish illustrated children's dictionaries as well as other items such as books and laptops.
Alan said: "Putin had lost within a few weeks or days. It's now the end game. I think he's looking towards the best way out so he can appear to have a massive victory in getting rid of what he claims to be the nationalists or the nazis. He wants to say 'I've got the Dombas.
"The Ukrainanians have given him a bloody nose. It's that thing about determination which the Ukrainians have but the Russians don't. It's also that thing about power corrupting and absolute power corrupting absolutely. He's the emperor or the czar and nobody disagrees with what he says. Nobody says 'you've got this wrong'. He goes off with his hair-brained schemes and the consequences are there for all to see.
"He gave his soldiers rations for three days and that's why they got stuck outside Kyiv."
Alan famously co-founded Factory Records, the indie record label, alongside the late Anthony Wilson in 1978. The label is credited with playing a key part in the city’s transformation from a decaying former industrial powerhouse to a beacon of art and culture.
