Since they were at school Norwich man Mark Robinson and his best friend Chris Enmarch have been joined at the hip.
So when Mark heard his best friend was headed to Ukraine to pick up his wife and her family, he knew in a "heartbeat" he had to go too.
Mark, 62, hopped in his van alongside his best mate - but made sure to stuff the vehicle with supplies largely donated by City of Norwich School and headed for mainland Europe.
Mark, who works in security, said: "As soon as Chris said that he was going to pick his wife Natalie up, I said that I was going with him.
"We couldn't go with an empty van, so I spoke with my daughter and son who said there was an appeal going at CNS and it seemed that within a couple of hours, we had a van full of medical kit, food, clothing and off we went."
Setting off in the twilight hours of March 3, the pair were gone for a week, returning on March 10.
The duo first headed for Romania and dropped kit at the Ukrainian border just north of a small town called Siret.
From there they headed back into Romania, travelling to Stamate where they picked up Natalie, her daughter Anna and granddaughter Tatiana, 5.
Mark, who lives in Tuckswood Lane, added: "We went from Stamate to Budapest to Paris, Natalie then had to go back to Milan, back to Stamate and is now in Budapest.
"She was told to do biometric scans but there's a two day holiday so she has to wait.
"It's a total farce, you might as well be trying to get them to the moon.
"Over there I saw the saddest thing in my whole life but also the greatest. It was human beings helping human beings. It was fantastic to see but so sad.
The army veteran added: "But it's the first time in my lifetime that I'm embarrassed to be British.
"Whatever the politicians are saying, the government isn't doing enough.
"I've been there and this system isn't working."
"This isn't a story about us. We are not heroes, the heroes are the people of Ukraine."
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