A young man from Penryn who has travelled to the Polish border to help those in Ukraine has reported back on what he's encountered while there.

Charlie Hammerton, 27, who ran mental health wellbeing sessions for children in Cornwall before travelling across Europe to help people crossing the Polish border from Ukraine has spoken to The Packet about what he's encountered.

He also wanted to correct a common misconception many people have with regards to where their donations end up and how they are distributed.

Speaking to The Packet, Charlie said: "Everyone seems to think that their donations are going to go to a big organisation that will distribute it evenly and all of that, it's not, it's just people.

"The border crossing, and the refugee centres, they're run by individuals, by people like me who just turned up and asked 'what can I do, how can I get stuck in?'

"I went with a mind to be working with children, and that's what I've done, there's a guy from Austria that turned up, and within a few days he was managing all of the coaches leaving the border to Germany.

"He'd never done anything like that before, and all of a sudden it was just 'you can speak German, you've gotta manage all the buses that are going into Germany every day from the border.'

"The whole place is run by people like that.

"It doesn't matter if you've never done anything like that before, every person has a role and everything needs reacting to depending on the circumstance and how many people are there or what time of day it is.

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"One minute you need tables because a new soup kitchen has arrived and the next you need 1000 blankets because it's going to be minus elven, it's all over the place."

Charlie also described how items donated would have to be found amongst piles of other donations in order to be handed out on the ground.

He continued: "You identify what needs to be done and get a group of people who are free to do it, for me, one of them was to get blankets to the border as quick as possible.

"These piles of donations are not well organised, there's no 'blankets are over here, nappies are over here,' it's like a boot fair of just mountains of stuff and it's all over the place.

"It's outside, it's inside, it's in trucks it's just everywhere, and if you need to find something you've got to go digging.

"If you need 1000 blankets, you've got to go and dig for 1000 blankets.

"Then there's the logistics, you've got to get them to the border, so I had my car full up with a couple of hundred blankets, the other guys' cars were full up, so everyone piles into the car and the police are just waving you on because they know everyone's got a job.

"That's how it's working, it's just ordinary people coming together and forming little bands and little groups, sharing your skill sets and reacting quickly, much quicker than the government can."

The Packet will keep updating you on Charlie's progress.