YOUNGSTERS still living with the after-effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster have visited Ellesmere Port and Wirral for a health-boost.

A group of 19 children and two adult leaders from Belarus spent a month in the area staying with local families and on June 12 enjoyed a lunch at Little Sutton Methodist Church.

An explosion at the nuclear power plant near Pripyat in the Ukraine in 1986 sent lethal radiation into the air which was then carried as far as Western Europe.

Malcolm Collens, from Little Sutton Methodist Church, said: “Bringing the children to England boosts the children’s immune systems for at least two years, helping them to resist or recover from serious illness.

“Belarus received over 70 per cent of the radioactive fallout from the explosion and as a result thousands born every year are still affected or go on to develop thyroid cancer, bone cancer and leukaemia.”

He added: “Little Sutton Methodist Church have now hosted a lunch for children from Chernobyl affected by the nuclear disaster for the last 18 years.

“With the help of the Wirral Methodist Circuit of Churches and friends we send the children home with many gifts and collect donations which pay for more children to come over the following year.”