“I was collecting wood from the shed (in Clare) when something crawled up my arm … it led to a staph infection and I ended up in hospital for a few days,” the Wellbeing SA project officer says from a bustling café in Adelaide.

It is with a substantial dose of irony that Justyna explains how the health scare contrasted to the first reaction from her husband and mother when she revealed plans earlier this year to fly across the world to support refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of their home.

Both raised fears for her safety and about Justyna leaving her two children Helenka, aged three, and Sebastian, 10, with her husband Nathan Mercurio initially writing a half page letter listing reasons why she should not go.

“I felt extremely connected emotionally and mentally with what was happening with the invasion… why shouldn’t I be the person who goes to help,” Justyna, who was born in Krakow, several hundred kilometres from the Ukrainian border, says.

After long discussions, the family supported the decision and Justyna established a go-fund.me page to help refugees, self-funded her trip and arrived armed with an initial $25,000 funds raised as she set out to explore on the first day in Krakow.

She found the railway station where thousands of refugees were streaming into the city and saw three tents, one serving hot food, one with beds for refugees and another with clothing.

“I asked a young man how can I help? He said just go in and serve food, I ran to a shop to get a hair tie and started, that was the first day of something that would change my life forever,” Justyna says.

“On that day a women touched my hand and said thank you, I looked up, there was something about her, the emptiness in her eyes in the trauma she had experienced, of having a mutual, silent understanding that we were there to support each other.

“At that moment I promised I would smile and I would give eye contact and give as much love as I could with each serving of the food.”

It was quickly apparent people were arriving from Ukraine with barely a possession, and Justyna began using the $25,000 in raised donations to distribute basic necessities like soap shampoo, warm socks to ward off the cold.

Two Ukrainian women, Tania and Galina, saw the desperation and chaos that ensued as she delivered packs and offered to help, Justyna describing it one of many great kindnesses she was witnessing.

Ukrainian refugees Tania and Galina help Justyna distribute necessities.

She tells of Polish families opening their homes to refugees and describes two nurses and their two 13-year-old daughters who had travelled from the United States to help, one of the girls able to play the violin.

“Each day she played the Ukrainian national anthem on her violin at the lunch service, the tears it brought and the comfort it gave, it was very emotional,” Justyna says, “those two mums and their girls have returned to help four times now.”

There was a teacher from the United States teaching English and a hairdresser from the United Kingdom giving free haircuts on the railway station platform.

Justyna also made strong connections with others living in Krakaw who began forming organisations supporting Ukrainians during her five weeks in Poland during May – and is now continuing to raise funds of almost $60,000, to support their work for some 3.5 million refugees.

This money raised in South Australia recently paid for the transport of desks to a town near the city of Kyiv where the school was bombed, a mission to help local children continue some form of study through No Borders for Solidarity.

Destroyed buildings where school supplies are being distributed near Kyiv. Photo supplied

The daughter of Justyna’s parents’ friends in Poland, Inia, runs the organisation that also delivers medical trauma kits and food to Ukraine, Justyna saying some of the donated funds came from an event run through schools in Clare and Auburn.

She also works with Foundation on Life that was started as international support organisations gradually received less funds and closed the tents operating at the railways station in Krakow.

The voluntary group has stepped in to provide staple foods and packages from the many still travelling over the border.

Justyna was nine years old when her family arrived in Australia after the Berlin Wall fell and Poland was under Soviet occupation. Her 77-year-old mother “who said don’t go” has now also travelled to Poland and made contact with friends and volunteers Justyna is supporting.

“We all have a role to play,” Justyna says, “there is a man called Fred Rogers, who said his mother’s words of comfort during times of disaster were ‘Look for the helpers. You can always find people who are helping’.”