Martin Roberts was left ‘heartbroken’ after delivering essential aid to Ukrainian families in Poland.
The Homes Under the Hammer star went viral earlier this month, as he shared a video of himself sobbing outside Costco after they refused to let him bulk buy Calpol to send to kids who had fled the war-torn country following an invasion by Russian forces.
Martin wanted to donate as many essential supplies as she could to local organisations who were sending aid to Ukraine and surrounding countries - including Poland - who were taking in those who had fled warfare.
Feeling helpless, he was contacted by an organisation called Help from Bournemouth to Ukraine, and Martin ended up volunteering to drive the supplies more than 1,260 miles in his Volkswagen van to the Poland-Ukraine border of Medyka.
“I said, ‘Well, when are you going?’ and they said tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock. This was 6 o'clock in the evening. They'd been planning this for weeks and I had less than 12 hours. But now I'd been told about it, I had to do it!” he told OK! magazine .
Martin was given life-saving equipment to deliver, including defibrillators, child heart-rate monitors and saline drips, and managed to complete the exhausting journey - driving through France, Holland, Germany and Poland - by eating sweets and drinking Red Bull.
“I was just a man on a mission. It's not a walk in the park,” Martin confessed.
In Medyka he was able to hand over the supplies, who then transported them to hospitals in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, which has been bombarded by Russian missiles.
Unfazed by the horrifying conflict, Martin defiantly stated: “I would have gone into that war zone.”
He then spoke about his experience visiting a refugee centre on the border, and said he was left heartbroken after speaking with a boy who was the same age as his son back home in the UK.
“I've got a 12 year old and a 14 year old, so to see children the same age as mine with the clothes they were standing up in and maybe a small rucksack and that was it, was difficult,” he shared, admitting it was “heartbreaking” to see the children.
The TV star said he gave one teenage boy a football, and despite thinking it was a “silly little gesture”, Martin was left speechless as he tried to offer up some words of encouragement for the boy.
“I had this football, it was a silly little gesture, but I gave it to him and explained that I had a son the same age as him at home and I just wanted to say, ‘The world knows and is thinking of you and doing what it can to help,’” he added.
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