Children of Chernobyl breathe fresh air in Chesterfield

Richard Street, trip organiser, pictured top left, and English teacher Marsha Bylina, pictured second from right, with children from Chernobyl at Chesterfield's Church Spire. Picture: Mark Fear.

The Pinxton and East Derbyshire Link of the Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline charity has organised a trip which saw youngsters visit the Crooked Spire on Thursday.

They were enchanted by the church.

The Pinxton and East Derbyshire Link of the Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline is calebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

Karina Kesareva, eight, and Victoria Belousova, 16, at the Church Spire. Picture: Mark Fear.

One of the charity’s main aims is to raise funds to bring youngsters from Belarus and Ukraine to the UK for a one-month recuperative break.

While here, they stay with host families, eat healthy, clean food and breathe fresh, uncontaminated air in an effort to rebuild their much-depleted immune systems.

In the early hours of April 26, 1986, one of four nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl power station exploded.

During the accident itself, 31 people died.

Contamination is still a problem and disputes continue about how many will eventually die as a result of the world’s worst nuclear accident.