GOOD Samaritan Darren Tait admitted he was overwhelmed with the generosity of his community as he and a band of intrepid volunteers handed out badly-needed supplies to Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

Mr Tait, 50, expected to use one van to haul vital supplies to people fleeing the Russian army after they fled across the Polish border. He was wrong. He and team received so many donations from local residents and people in neighbouring West Devon that he was forced to send out an appeal for more vehicles. In the end, Mr Tait was leading a convoy of nine vehicles through Europe daubed with slogans defying Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Mr Tait only launched his appeal for supplies early last week. He and his wife Polly watched in astonishment as the piles of donated goods in their company’s office at St Ann’s Chapel grew higher, and higher, and higher. Many people in Okehampton donated, after a collection point was created at the town’s Specsavers branch.

In the end, Mr Tait had to add an appeal for more drivers and, crucially, more vehicles to carry them east. On Tuesday, his efforts in raising aid for the Ukranian refugees paid off as he and his team started to hand out items such as sleeping bags, tents and First Aid kits.

Mr Tait said: ‘We are overwhelmed with the generosity of people who have donated to our appeal. They nearly filled the office with donations and they’re still coming in. It’s got to the point where we had to put feelers out for more vehicles because we’ve got a lot more than we can take on one minibus. People have been donating medical kits as well as everything else, which are so badly needed out there. We’re really grateful to everyone.’

Wife Polly said communities had also responded to their appeal to cover the costs involved in getting the goods out to Poland.

She said: ‘Lots of businesses have donated money and we received £750 from the Who’d Have Thought It (inn) from something they put on, for instance, which was fantastic.’

Mrs Tait said her husband had decided to make his epic 1,500-mile journey across Europe after watching televised reports from Ukraine.

She said: ‘There’s 15 of them (volunteers) in nine vehicles, including vans, everything’s going very well and they were hoping to distribute their supplies on Tuesday. They got to Dover on their way out and were a bit worried it might be difficult to get through customs, but they were received with open arms. They fuelled up and somebody paid for their petrol.’

She added: ‘Of course I’m worried about him, but I worry about him when he drives to Bristol. It’s all been a bit humbling. There’s been a huge response, I think because people like to be doing something to help.’

Pictured above Darren and his team before leaving the UK for Poland.