CHERNOBYL CHILDREN'S PROJECT (UK)

Holidays

Around a third of the chidren we bring for holidays to the UK every summer are in remission from cancer. Doctors in Belarus believe that the holiday gives the children a much better chance of staying healthy.

There are many young mums in the cancer hospital at Barovliani with babies or young children going through long and painful treatment. We have a number of groups who are happy to host these young children and their mothers as soon as they are well enough to travel. At Christmas a group of four and five year olds come to Longnor, near Buxton, and have a wonderful holiday.

Then in the summer our groups in Teesdale, Evesham, Alsager, Glossop, Newark and South Manchester all host mothers and children for holidays which the mums, who have been through such a stressful time, benefit from almost as much as their children.

The other age groups desperately in need of invitations are the teenagers. If a child is ill at 13 years old, he may be 15 by the time he is well enough to go on holiday, and many of the charities who invite children for holidays across Europe prefer to invite younger children.

So we invite as many teenagers as we can, up to 19 years old. These young people get a tremendous psychological boost from the experience as well as the undoubted health benefits. They are so appreciative that people from another country care enough to raise the funds and invite them into their homes.

Our group in Endon and Stoke have taken 16 and 17 year olds every summer for the last ten years, and this year had a group of 18 year olds, who had a fabulous holiday. Older teenagers have also enjoyed holidays in Aberystwyth and Carmarthen and younger teens come to West Pennine and Liverpool.