Chernobyl charity seeks volunteers

Many children living in Chernobyl are in poor health

The Oxfordshire branch of a charity providing foreign holidays for sick children affected by the worst ever nuclear disaster has said it needs more volunteers.

Medicine Chernobyl works to give children living near the site of the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 holidays abroad to boost their immune systems.

The explosion at the reactor in the northern Ukrainian town released 100 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War.

The charity's Oxfordshire group, based in Didcot, now wants more families in the county to become hosts so that greater numbers of children in poor health from radiation exposure can have foreign holidays next year.

Ann Lockwood from the charity says volunteer host families and workers are vital if their work is to continue.

She said: "We are looking for people who want to get involved with next year's visit.

"For the children, it is an experience of a lifetime to be able to do this but the main thing is the health benefits they get.

"Their immune systems are very low and coming away from that environment has been proven to increase their lifespans."