A former Scots firefighter will lead a team of 13 to the Ukrainian border to donate vital supplies to the country's fire service.
Gary Bennett, who is the chairman of the Scottish Emergency Rescue Association (SERA) - a charity set up to provide emergency equipment to countries in need of aid - makes his journey today.
The 52-year-old from Edinburgh is donating four fire engines and 18 tonnes of emergency equipment to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.
Among the donations include bulletproof vests, pumps, generators, hydraulic rescue equipment and PPE.
The team, made up of a mix of retired and currents firefighters, will cross multiple borders in their pursuit without any stops.
Due to security reasons, the charity has decided not to reveal their route.
Gary, who has worked in the fire industry for 27 years, revealed that he is "desperate" to get going.
The team is currently waiting on an updated V5 - a document that registers your vehicle with the DVLA - before they can set off on their 3600-mile cross-country expedition.
He said: "We're desperate to get going.
"We've been tackled up and ready to go since last Thursday but complications with the DVLA paperwork kept us back a wee bit."
Gary will lead his volunteers to a secure Ukrainian border checkpoint before the equipment is unloaded and handed over to the country's firefighters.
He hopes that the donations, including one fire engine from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), will help to save lives.
Reports in recent days have suggested that dozens of Ukrainian firefighters have sadly been killed in their line of duty after being targeted by Russian forces.
The former firefighter says that the donations will "undoubtedly" help their cause.
He said: "When we send fire engines to countries in need of aid, historically, we know that each fire engine saves conservatively 20 lives per year - and that is not in a conflict zone.
"That is around 6000 lives per year to now, so we know that this will undoubtedly save lives and the firefighters' lives as they are being targeted by the Russian forces."
And, Gary has revealed he isn't nervous "at all" about taking the risky course.
"We have been doing this for years", he said.
"We know our job. Things will go wrong, they always do.
"It's the norm that these things happen but we will pull through and we will get to that border successfully. You just roll with it and get the job done."
Gary founded SERA in 2006 after donating shoeboxes from the Shoebox Appeal to countries in Eastern Europe.
Since then, the charity has delivered around 70 fire engines to Serbia, Moldova and Romania.
He added: "That experience opened my eyes and encouraged me to do more for countries in need of aid."
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