TV presenter Martin Roberts, best known for presenting the popular BBC daytime property show Homes Under the Hammer, has spoken of the “massive responsibility” he feels to help the people of Ukraine as he completes his “humanitarian mercy dash” to the border with a vanful of emergency supplies.
Mr Roberts, 58, set out from Bournemouth last week with a shipment of aid for the refugees currently fleeing Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked military assault on Russia’s western neighbour, a 1,270-mile journey taking him via Dover and Calais across northern Europe to Medyka on the Polish border with Ukraine.
An estimated 2.6m Ukrainians have fled their homeland since the invasion began on 24 February, with Poland welcoming as many as 1.4m and Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Moldova also taking in huge numbers of asylum seekers.
Moved by their plight, Mr Roberts joined the Help from Bournemouth convoy taking donated goods to those whose lives have been upended by Russian military hostilities, which have seen entire cities surrounded and subjected to intense shelling and brutal siege warfare tactics over the last three weeks.
As he set out on his quest to deliver a consignment of medical supplies, sleeping bags, batteries, mobile phones and other essentials, Mr Roberts told his followers on Instagram: “All that I need to do now is get this precious and much-needed cargo to Medyka... One van. One man on a mission. 1,270 miles. 22 hours. That’s a lot of Wine Gums and Red Bulls. What could possibly go wrong?
“Hopefully I’ll be having the chance to see where this stuff goes, make sure it goes to the right places, and just do my bit. I’m not doing this for any other reason other than it is just me wanting to do what I can.”
On Sunday, the DIY expert posted a new video on the platform providing an update on his progress.
He explained that he had checked into a hotel in the Netherlands in order to rest and break up the arduous drive.
“I’ve managed a few hours’ sleep and yeah, it’s a really tough day today, it’s another 13 hours on the road,” he said.
“Probably the longest day’s driving I’ve ever done, all the way down through Poland and a large portion of Germany. Lots of music on the stereo, lots of Wine Gums, and probably bits of Red Bull. Lots of Red Bull.”
Mr Roberts continued: “We’ll just get on with it. The thing is, the thing that keeps me going is that there are people that are waiting, although they don’t know they’re waiting yet. They’re there and they don’t know we are coming, but we are, with these really important supplies.
“I feel quite a responsibility… a massive responsibility. But we’ll just get there.”
Mr Roberts said his choice of music was proving a crucial motivating factor and wondered aloud whether Bill Withers, Stevie Ray Vaughan or ZZ Top was the best choice to get him through the second leg of his journey.
On Monday, he reported that he had arrived in Poland and that the convoy’s mooted plan to enter Ukraine directly and deliver its supplies to the frontline in Lviv had had to be scrapped due to the close proximity of Russian forces.
Showcasing some of the supplies he had brought for the camera, Mr Roberts confessed that he was “very nervous” and expected the day ahead to be “pretty traumatic”.
However, he concluded stoically: “We’ve got a job to do and we’ve just got to focus on that.”
The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.
