Ali Piper from Brixton founded PUMA (Plymouth Ukraine Medical Aid) in April 2022 to deliver supplies to the war-torn country.

This will be the 34th trip, and there are now trips roughly every five or six weeks, with each trip delivering 16 or 17 tons of aid.

Ali explained: "We are now a charity in Ukraine as well.

"We support local communities sending aid to displacement shelters, the elderly, those who have been evacuated as well as the front line and Kyiv regions.

"We also support anyone who has been injured because of the war."

Ali goes on every trip and explains the reality: "Many families are displaced and there are so many traumatised children and elderly that have autism.

"It's not normal to look into the sky to see if there is a drone above their head.

"If we can bring some help, if we can get some love then that's what we'll do.

"That can be a tube of toothpaste, a bandage, a sleeping bag.

Pavers Foundation has just given a grant of £1,500 to PUMA.

Their Endsleigh store manager is Victoria Jenkinson: "The Pavers Foundation supports both local and national charities.

"All the money raised from the 10p carrier bags goes to the foundation.

"Colleagues can put forward applications for grants twice a year and after Sue came in asking for shoe boxes for PUMA we thought it would be a good cause to support."

Ali describes what happens with the trips: "The artic lorry comes from Ukraine and we load up in Plymouth.

"He then drives back and I fly to Slovakia, I then get a lift to the border and cross with the lorry.

"The pallets go onto a train which takes them to the front line areas for distribution.

"This time I'm getting a train from Uzhhorod to Kyiv which is a 17-hour journey then some colleagues are meeting me and taking me to the front line at Zaporizhzhia.

"I've been a couple of times before and other areas on the front line and we are supporting James who is British and has been supporting all the civilians in Zaporizhzhia.

Ali then described how it all began: "I've got a couple of friends in the hospital and there was some spare medical kit which we took to Ukraine in 2022 and we thought it would be one trip.

"When we got to the border I as a mum could see they didn't need just medical aid but every sort of aid.

"I went back and set up PUMA and we started taking transit vans over every few months initially and Vospers who have been amazing gave us part of their logistics warehouse in Bellever rent-free and it has grown to be an Arctic every six weeks.

Senior Volunteer Sue Tanner originally went to a donation day but wanted to do more: "We get the parcels that are sent in which are sorted into different categories, some to the military areas, some to OAP homes.

"We pallet it all up then in the evening I do the admin side.

"We have around 15 volunteers doing different roles."

To find out more visit: https://www.plympuma.co.uk/