Back in March, former army medic Steve Brooks, who works for Housing First in the Connect Centre in Wells, set off in his car from his home in Shepton, on a mission to help save lives in Ukraine.

Now he is safely back home with his family – but it will be six weeks of his life that he will never forget.

"When I went, I said to myself that if I could save even just one life then it would be worth it," said Steve. "And I know I have done that. I was able to help a lot of people out there. I was able to train a lot of people in vital life-saving skills.

"But I feel like I left friends there, and that's really hard. It makes me quite emotional to think about it. It's quite difficult being on the sidelines now, but I have a better understanding, in some small part, of how my wife Tabby felt while I was out there.

"She is amazing. We have a wonderful marriage and we support each other in everything that we want to do, but I know that I was really stretching that to its limits."

Steve went to Ukraine after approaching the Ukrainian Government, offering to deliver a medical training programme to civilian soldiers. They took him up on the offer, and he travelled to various locations around the country – along with a team of other medics – training Ukrainian fighters who were coming off front lines in vital life saving techniques.

They would come back from the front for a few days to rest and resupply, and we would do the training then, and then they would go back to the front again.

"Some of the things we were teaching were very basic – but things they just didn't know," said Steve. "Things like applying a tourniquet. If you apply it correctly, and quickly enough it can save a limb, or even a life."

Steve delivering his training programme, teaching life saving techniques

Although not directly on the front line, Steve faced plenty of dangers while he was there.

"There were a few times when I think I pushed my luck a bit," he admits. "On one occasion we were about eight miles behind the front as the Russians retreated out of the northern Kyiv region. Somebody tripped on a mortar and it went off about 15 metres away from me. "Fortunately there was an embankment behind me which shielded me and somehow I didn't get hit with any shrapnel, but the shockwave knocked me off my feet and I had quite a concussion.

"But the main danger was the other drivers and the road conditions. We moved every two or three days, mainly at night, and I was just following a torch in a car in front. Often we had to divert down small tracks if we had intelligence that the Russians were up ahead. And I was just in my Kia Ceed, and it's not an off-road vehicle whatsoever!

"When I first arrived at the border with Poland the guard asked me a couple of times if I was really going to Kyiv in my car, and he went away and spoke to the other guards.

"When he came back he said. 'First your car will die, then you will die. Crazy English man.'

"But within 20 minutes of being in Ukraine I completely got it. The roads are the worst you have ever been on. The potholes in Somerset are nothing in comparison. But in the end, my Ceed got me there, got me around, and got me back again!"

It's not just Steve's Kia that struggled with the roads in Ukraine though. "Ukraine has become the place where ambulances are sent to die," said Steve. "They need all-terrain ambulances and I'm working with Somerset Aid for Ukraine to raise money to buy one."

Steve hopes that one day he will be able to return to Ukraine with Tabby, but admits that seeing a way to the end of the conflict is hard.

"It's like an immoveable object meets and unstoppable force," he said. "The Ukrainians are the most determined people I have ever met, and everyone is united together. Even if Putin keeps what he has for now, he won't keep it long term. The Ukrainians won't stop. But then I don't see Putin backing down either.

"It's the every day Ukrainian people who are suffering, and it's heartbreaking. They just want peace and to be able to live their life how they choose to live it.

"I was given an humanitarian award from the university in Odessa with an open invitation to go back whenever I want, and we are definitely going back. There's too many beautiful places that I want Tabby to see, and people that I want her to meet. I believe there will be a free Ukraine that we can go back to."

You can help support Steve's fundraising for an all-terrain ambulance here.