OPENING your home to a stranger, even a child, can be a daunting prospect, but that is what many kind-hearted people in west Wiltshire have done and most enjoyed it so much that they can't wait to do it again.

Ten youngsters from Belarus, a country still suffering from the after-effects of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, have spent the past month in the area.

Margaret Noakes was unsure when she volunteered to act as a host that she could manage for more than two weeks but, days after Iryna Masla, 10 and nine-year-old Olya Boiko arrived, she decided she didn't want to part with them.

She said: "It has been absolutely wonderful. I don't think you can know what it is like until you do it. Just thinking about them leaving made me want to cry.

"The children are so good, they share everything, they don't argue, I think they are just so grateful for anything you do for them."

The children were brought to west Wiltshire by Westbury charity the Chernobyl Children's Lifeline, which has helped nearly 300 children in this way since it was set up in 1997.

The time away from the radiation that surrounds them at home and the uncontaminated food and medical care they receive while they are here dramatically improves the children's health and can extend their life expectancy by up to two years. In a new project this year, shoppers in Trowbridge were encouraged to help by buying clothes the children chose themselves at Mark One, in The Shires.

Charity chairman, Henry Leigh, said: "People have been so generous. Some of these children didn't even have a change of clothes when they arrived."

Sonia Ellingham, manager of Mark One, said: "When they first came here they looked very pale and thin, they looked unhappy and care worn.

"A month later they are totally different they look so much healthier and happier."

While they were here the youngsters got the chance to take part in many things they would never otherwise be able to do. They went on day trips to Longleat and Crealy adventure park in Devon and to the seaside.

Some even managed to learn how to swim in the time they were here. Lena Pyschik, 11, gained her 25 metres certificate, even though she had never swum before.

Mr Leigh said: "They have never seen the sea before and the look on their faces is just a picture."

The charity is always looking for more host families or people who can help in other ways. Henry Leigh can be contacted on (01373) 827799.

Factfile

The world's worst nuclear accident happened at Chernobyl, in the former USSR, now the Ukraine, when reactor four at the power station blew up at 1.23am on April 26, 1986.

How many people died as a result is not known. The Soviet government stated that 31 was the final death toll, but it is thought that thousands might have died.

The accident released up to 40 times more radiation than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The fallout was detected in countries all around the globe, and the world was first alerted by a monitoring station in Sweden.

The number of instances of thyroid cancer in children are growing year by year, some figures suggest the rise is as much as 2,400 per cent.

Seventy per cent of the radiation fell on the land and the people of Belarus.