A woman from County Durham is making the 1,100-mile trip to Poland with two friends to take aid and supplies for Ukrainian refugees.
Lucy Minchella from Spennymoor knew she needed to help after watching more than one million Ukrainian people flee their homes on the news as the Russian military invasion continues.
And together with friend Alex McCarthy and his brother-in-law Julien David, she's making the trip to Poland on March 18 to personally donate supplies to those in need.
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The 34-year-old set up four drop-off centres across County Durham to allow generous members of the public to donate clothing, medical supplies, and non-perishable foods in a bid to help.
Lucy said: "I was watching the news one morning and like everybody, I felt helpless.
"We live in a very fortunate country that has everything at our disposal and we just want to do our best to help in some small way.
"I would feel better in myself if I went over there personally. A lot of times when you donate to something you don't really see where it goes so I want to go over there myself.
"We've asked for medical supplies, clothing, first aid kits, and non-perishable foods.
"Our plan is to collect it all next week and start going through it."
Lucy said she has been left "overwhelmed" by the local community who has banded together to show their support for Ukraine.
The drop-off centres have so far been "inundated" with supplies and more than £1,400 has also been raised to go towards travel costs.
Lucy said: "We've been inundated with supplies. It's been really overwhelming. It's been lovely to see everyone come together offering to donate financially or with supplies.
"We've raised £1,400 in the space of just four days, it really took off across Facebook.
"We're trying to raise as much money as possible to go towards travel costs and with anything left over we will make cash donations as there are a lot of families struggling financially.
"It's been really heartwarming to see the community pull together to help and we can't thank people enough for donating."
It comes as the number of Ukrainian refugees continues to rise sharply, and more than 1.5 million people have streamed out of the country in just 10 days, according to the United Nations.
The UN high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi said it was the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War.
The UN estimates up to four million people may be forced to leave the country and seven million may lose their homes inside Ukraine.
Lucy is hoping to raise as much money as possible to go towards travel costs with any extra money raised to go towards cash donations to refugees.
If you would like to donate, you can do so here.
