A County Durham veteran put his own safety at risk to guide vulnerable people out of war-torn Ukraine.
Mental health coach and ex-RAF serviceman Rob Campbell, 45, spent a week running perilous solo missions bringing families, orphans and elderly and disabled people to safety in Medyka, on the Polish border.
Flying out to Poland on March 20, Rob made daily runs across the border, helping a total of 28 people, including 21 children and several people in wheelchairs, to safety. Each morning he would call his partner, Kate Griffin, waiting anxiously for news back home in Consett with her three children, before "going dark" as he shut off all telephone communication to avoid detection by Russian forces.
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Rob said: "I would keep going until I was absolutely exhausted, and then at first light I would be straightaway back to the border. I was going about 80km into Ukraine and meeting people who were sheltering in places like churches and community centres.
"I couldn't go into much detail about where I was going because I knew that the Russians had been using places like that as targets. There were a few worrying moments where you'd find yourself in a village that was completely deserted, your military training kicks in and you think 'ok, there's something happening here' and you know it's nothing good.
"It was difficult to see some of these families in a situation that was pretty horrific. The first family I picked up was a mum and two kids with their dog, the dad had gone to fight and he couldn't get them any further so I took them across the border.
"The first time I met these kids and saw their eyes it took me right back to Afghanistan and Bosnia: I wish I could put into words what you see in children's eyes in war because if people understood I think there would be less warfare."
Rob, who has previously worked to support Afghan refugees coming to the UK, became determined to do something to help after seeing news coverage of empty pushchairs set up in Lviv to demonstrate the number of children killed in the Russian invasion. Despite the personal risk, he knew he had to help prevent more young lives being lost.
He said: "Before I left we sat down and discussed it with the three kids. I just felt that if this was happening right now in the UK and I got sent away to fight I would want somebody to come and protect my family.
"That was how I expressed it to the kids, 'I'm going to go and help mummies and children who are in a dangerous place and I'll take them somewhere safe'. It's one of those things where inside me there's a sense of duty, of doing the right thing, and I felt that I could help and I could do it safely for myself and, more importantly, for them.
"You forget about your life, your safety and all your focus is on these women and children. You're acting as a protector, not an aggressor, so it was about using all my military training to put in place a plan to keep them safe."
Before crossing the border each day, Rob said he would make a careful route plan and risk assessment, using information from refugees and from Ukrainian soldiers about where Russian forces were, and using locals to link up with people in need of help. He travelled alone, so as not to draw attention or give any sign of being a military force, and says these precautions were vital, urging people not to follow in his footsteps unless they have the skills to do so safely.
"It was all about using local intelligence. As I started getting recognised by the military on the border they would say, 'there's a group of orphans in X church', or 'there's a house with a blue roof in this village where there's a man who is disabled'," he said.
"The important thing is I went there because I knew I had the skill set and I thought I could do more good on the ground than back here. There are lots of ways to help Ukraine so please think about what you can do, don't make things worse by crossing the border if you don't have the experience."
Rob is now considering what he can do next to support Ukrainian families, whether that's another trip to the country or offering mental health help for refugees in the UK. But whatever's next, he said the sights he saw on his aid mission will stay with him forever.
He added: "There were a lot of people coming back the other way: mothers who had taken their children to safety and then were travelling back to fight alongside their sons or husbands. I found that absolutely amazing because you've literally just done the most heroic thing, getting your kids out, and then you're doing something even more heroic, going back to fight.
"I met one fantastic woman who was getting kids across the border and then going to help in a field hospital. On the Polish side of the border there's this rag-tag bunch of groups from everywhere in the world who are doing whatever they can to help.
"In situations like this you see the worst of humanity but you also see the best."
