LETTER: Can you host a child from Chernobyl?

I HAVE just seen on the national TV news there are still livestock restrictions in the Lake District due to radio-active rain polluted by the Chenobyl power station explosion 25 years ago.

Can you therefore imagine what it must be like living near Chernobyl, even now?

This is why we bring children over for a month each year to help them build up immunity in their bodies for when they become young adults, which is the time when health disorders, including cancer, can kick in.

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We are presently planning for next June and we have shortly to commit ourselves to the number of children to bring. Money, of course, is a big consideration, but also the number of families willing to host a child.

Nearly every year, we ask for new volunteers and are grateful to the local community for coming up trumps each time. Generally, hosts have children of their own of roughly the same age, but not necessarily. We take care of the children each weekday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.

We ask families just to commit to one visit, next year running from June 16th until July 14th. However, the vast majority of hosts opt to continue hosting for longer than this, as an individual child generally comes each year from seven years old until 12.

We plan a varied programme of entertainment, visits and a little education for them and this means we are always on the lookout for helpers during the visit.

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If anybody out there would like to join our team, give me a call on 01200 423219. Until you host a child, you do not know the joy and pleasure that helping these children can give.

DAVID WYMER,

Friends of Chernobyl’s Children,