Over the past week, the events unfolding in Ukraine are difficult to comprehend, the footage on the news is devastating. As a generation that has a lived experience of war, we watch in anger, astonished that we appear to have learned nothing. History dictates, whatever the problem, war is not the answer, war is never the answer.

People across the world feel helpless, to offer military assistance to Ukraine would plunge us into a world war and that would be unthinkable but to sit back and do nothing, well that seems unthinkable too.

During the second world war we endured a lot, families torn apart, homes destroyed, lives put on hold and loved ones lost, it was a desperate time, however the human spirit is strong and out of desperate times comes camaraderie, comes empathy, and comes hope and these are the things that we can offer the people of Ukraine.

Along with the team here at Kingfisher, we collected donations, food, pet supplies, toiletries, medications, and warm clothes. We boxed them up and arranged for them to be collected by the local fire station crew who have sent them on their way to the people who really need them.

We wrote messages of hope and of love to accompany the parcels, we beseeched them to stay strong, to never give up hope and to believe that good will conquer. Love will always find a way.

It was an emotional day, there were feelings of sadness, there was an incredulity that Europe could ever find itself back in this awful position, feelings of empathy and of fear but there was also a determinedness, a sense that together we can make a difference. We will do all that we can to offer support because, as history dictates, whatever the problem, war is not the answer, war is never the answer.