How a Wirral charity is helping the children of Chernobyl, 25 years after nuclear disaster

Apr 27 2011 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

TWENTY-FIVE years on from Chernobyl, kind-hearted Wirralians are opening their homes to children affected by the nuclear disaster.

Volunteers from the Chernobyl Children’s Life Line charity have welcomed over 800 children from Belarus to the borough every summer for the last 17 years.

Belarus received up to 70% of the radioactive fallout when the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the Ukraine exploded on April 26, 1986.

It caused a huge increase in cancer among the population, particularly in children.

The disaster also dealt a major blow to the economy of the already impoverished country.

It had relied on agriculture exports for its main economic output but land was left heavily contaminated.

On May 18 the charity will welcome 16 children to Wirral for a month-long visit, giving their immune systems time to improve away from the radiation.

The Wirral group was run for many years by Cynthia and Peter Hinton, both now in their 70s.

West Kirby couple Sue and Bruce Riley, who run Wallasey letting agency Keystone Property Management, took over last September.

Mother-of-three Sue, 42, said: “The children are so brave. They come over to stay with people they don’t know and they can’t really understand them because of the language barrier, even though many of our host families have picked up bits of Russian.

“Many tell us they dream of being picked to come. Wirral is well thought of because we do so much with them and they love coming to the beach.”