Hucknall school pupils play a hand in poker man's epic dash to Poland to help Ukrainian refugees

The Hillside donation was part of a larger overall donation of supplies by Bristol Royal Infirmary which resulted in a frantic dash to Lublin in Poland for Supply Ukraine founder, Paul England.

Paul, a Nottingham-native and international poker dealer, made the 1500-mile trip in a 41-hour, sleep deprived sprint – so that he wouldn’t be late for work.

He said: “I was contacted by an employee at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, Rupert Olden, on April 21 and he told me they had a generous amount of medical supplies to donate if someone could collect and deliver them to Ukraine.

"I knew that to be in Monte Carlo to deal for the PokerStars European Poker Tour on April 26, so I had to set off right away.

But before heading to Poland, Paul, went to Hucknall to pick up the generous donation from Hillside, which had been organised by teacher Megan Robley.

Megan said: “Right from the start, I wanted to help out and give in any way I could.

"Knowing Paul had been out once before it gave me a point of contact to make sure our donations would get to the people who needed them most.

"I’m very pleased with the response from the staff, our students and their parents.”

Paul then headed straight to Bristol, where the remaining space in his electric-powered Tesla was filled to bursting by staff at the Royal Infirmary.

From there, he took the ferry to France and then travelled through Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, stopping only to recharge his car and grab a few moments of sleep.

Finally, exhausted, he met up with Polish contact Marcin Jablonski in the early hours of Sunday morning in Lodz – having crossed six countries in just two days.

The pair travelled to Lublin to meet Marcin’s contacts who would then take the supplies on to Lviv in Ukraine.

Whilst in Lublin, they delivered the sanitary products, donated by Hillside, to Fundacja Zmieniamy Zycie, a halfway house for women and children fleeing from the war.

Donations were also delivered to ‘Liliowa 5’, an emergency overnight shelter.

Paul said: “It’s been a long but very rewarding journey.

"I hope to inspire others to get involved, volunteer, donate, open up your heart and homes to others and to make the lives around us a little bit better.

"Please help in any way you can, as even the smallest thing could really benefit and change the life of someone whose world has been turned upside down.”

If you’d like to donate, click here.