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Mum jets off to help needy kids

Eve Dugdale
5/10/2005

A HADFIELD mum of three swapped her usual family holiday to spend time working with severely disabled children.

Christine Bridge of Wesley Street, decided to volunteer with the Chernobyl children's project after reading a story about their work in the Advertiser.

She travelled to Belarus with the charity, which provides holidays for children with learning and physical difficulties living in an area contaminated by the Chernobyl accident.

The youngsters, who ranged in age from five to 18, came from orphanages in the south of Belarus and travelled to a holiday camp in the region of Gomel. Many of them had never had a holiday before.

The holidays are intended to help the children recuperate and at the same time have some fun, while spending time in safety.

Christine's role as a volunteer at the holiday camp was to make sure they all had the best possible time.

"It was the fun side that appealed to me," said Christine, 54.

"I thought I'd love to help the children have a good holiday. There were all sorts of activities for the children to do, such as face painting, going for walks, badminton, blowing bubbles and playing in the sandpit - I was looking forward to painting the children's faces.

"The children are orphans and do not have many toys at home so it was so nice to see them play."

Christine, who has three sons and works as a personal assistant at Cooperative UK, has lived in Hadfield for 18 years.

Anybody who wants to get involved in the Chernobyl Children's Project UK can visit www.chernobyl-children.org.uk or contact Linda on 01457 863534.