The father of a Potters Bar Youth Olympics hero has travelled out to Poland to join the efforts to help Ukrainian refugees who have fled their homeland following the invasion by Russia.
Richard Knight's son is swimmer Joel Knight, who clocked a 10-second personal best to win 1,500m gold at the European Youth Olympic Festival in 2011.
Richard, who lives in Watton-At-Stone, is among a group of three people who left the United Kingdom on Sunday and drove a mini-bus for 28 hours to Krakow, in Poland.
The mini-bus is full of aid for Ukrainian refugees, which was collected by church-goers in the diocese of St Albans.
The aid will be dropped off by the group in the village of Medyka, which is on the border of Poland and Ukraine and home to a refugee camp housing thousands of people.
However, the main purpose of their trip is to help Ukrainian refugees who are looking for somewhere to stay until the war is over.
Mr Knight, 61, who does self-employed property maintenance, said: “I really wanted to try and do something to help Ukraine because we’ve all seen the horrible things that are happening to the country and its people.
“I heard about a group of local people who were heading out there to do their bit and knew straight away I wanted to put my name into the hat.
“As a Christian this is a way for me to put my faith into action and I am a great believer in the fact that little things can lead to great changes. It can just take one person to make a difference.”
Mr Knight is joined on the trip by Norfolk man Adam Hale-Sutton, who has been organising the mercy missions, and Archant journalist David Powles.
Having arrived in Krakow on Monday evening they met Ukrainian woman Vita, her 10-year-old son Mykyta and their dog Asya.
They have been staying at a hotel after Mr Hale-Sutton helped her out of Medyka a week ago. The group are working to try and find her somewhere in the UK to stay until the war is over.
Before then she will be joining the group to act as an interpreter for their daily trips from Krakow to the border.
She said: “Before all of this happened I led a straightforward life, taking Mykyta to school, working, meeting friends for coffee. I don’t think I realised how important those things were to me.
“Now I just want to be back home, in my house, living my life.”
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