Deborah Richardson

But to see Yuri and

And to meet his family was incredible.

I all of a sudden understood what resilience was like and what these poor people had been subjected to for so long.

I met his dad and that was the most wonderful reunion.

He stood up and gave a speech on a Saturday evening.

We had a family dinner together.

and Yuri had to translate, of course, and he basically said he couldn't believe that I was there and that I had looked after his son all those years ago and I was still looking after his son and I'd always be Australian-Ukrainian family and that was really special.

But it was a surreal experience.

I lived on adrenaline for the time that I was there, Sarah,

And again, your brain doesn't comprehend what you're seeing.

One moment you're subjected to devastation.

At one stage, we're driving behind a gun truck with this massive, you know, missile gun pointed at us as we're driving down the road.

I recall driving past one building that had been bombed and looking up and you can see in

what would have been a window, a table and chairs that were set for dinner.

And you're looking at these things going, like, are those people even there anymore or are they not?

And so you're walking around and next minute there's a bombed building, there's sandbags.

And then the opposite side of that, there's buskers in the street, there's young people dancing in the street, drinking in the bars, living life.

And just this vivacity and this, we are not going to let you destroy our lives.

And you just, the admiration that I have for the Ukrainian people is huge and I will never forget it.

It's really, really tough, Sarah.