Marcus Thornton, from Port St Mary, has a van filled with aid supplies which he will be driving all the way to Poland’s border with Ukraine.

He will first meet up with friend Martin Price in Stafford, who will be taking a second van via Dover and Brussels which they expected to take around 20 hours in total.

And a third van for the trip will be driven down to meet them from Scotland by another friend and TT fan, John Penman, from near Falkirk.

They will then aim to find aid agencies along the border, who are receiving people arriving ‘en masse’ with supplies.

Marcus, who works for Manx National Heritage, said that in an ‘overwhelming response from wonderful people’ he received a full van’s worth of donations by this week after first making the appeal on Monday.

‘Trust me, I’m humbled,’ he added.

Marcus said that Martin had already been planning on making the trip, and when asked if he’d like to come along on Monday, said that ‘the answer was pretty much straightaway yes’.

He thanked local cleaning products supplier WDS for paying for the van and helping to collect donations.

The group will be leaving the UK on Wednesday, and will be keeping us posted on their progress.