OVER the past 15 years, the young faces of children of Belarus, coming from the shadow of the contamination of the Chernobyl nuclear zone have been a familiar sight on the streets of our Border towns and villages.

Since the Scottish Borders Link of Chernobyl Children Lifeline was founded in 2001, more than 100 children have been hosted by families in the Borders and Northumberland and the charity has raised over £60,000 to bring the children to our region.

The children stay with Border families for a month during which time they undertake various activities including a visit to the beach, a country park, Galashiels Fire Station, the Donkey Sanctuary and Edinburgh Zoo.

A necessary and important part of the visit is attending local opticians and dentists.

Medical opinion is that these visits to the Borders build up the children’s immune systems, counter the risk of thyroid cancers and add two years to their lives underwrites the entire purpose of the children coming here.

Some of the host families have been helping the charity for several years and have decided to take a break which means that the charity is seeking new host families.

In April, the chairman, Fraser Simm, visited Belarus on behalf of the charity, where he met patients and staff of the children’s cancer hospital in Minsk, school teachers and education officials, and most importantly, the families of children who had been to the UK or were preparing to come.

This visit was a very humbling experience, and Fraser will be making a presentation of his visit and also to invite potential new members of the charity to come and hear him speak.

It is remarkable how much the charity has achieved over the past 15 years; the generous help from so many local people from Peebles to Jedburgh, Stow to Seahouses, Galashiels to Tweedmouth and many other places in between has created something special, and it is hoped that sufficient interest in this may be shown to take the charity forward to hosting a visit again in 2016.

The public presentation will take place at the Kingsknowes Hotel, Galashiels at 7pm on Monday, November 23. Everyone is welcome!