Chernobyl kids enjoy Blackpool's top attractions thanks to Fylde coast charity

Fleetwood and Cleveleys Lions president Margaret Purcell with youngsters from Chernobyl at the Tower Circus.

Fleetwood and Cleveleys Lions members took a group of a dozen youngsters to the Sandcastle water park and then onto the world-famous Tower Circus.

The seafront along Blackpool’s Golden Mile is literally a breath of fresh air for the children.

Back in April 1986, the catastrophic nuclear explosion in Pripyat, Ukraine (inset) released a huge amount of radioactive particles into the atmosphere.

The nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, in the former USSR (now Ukraine), located 80 miles north of Kiev, showing the massive damage sustained when the reactor blew up on April 25th -26th, 1986 in what is the World's worst nuclear power accident.

People living in this area, and children born since, have continued to suffer a variety of illnesses in the wake of the disaster.

So the Lions club, in a similar way to many other British charities, do their bit to provide a little respite.

Stuart Gratrix, spokesman for Fleetwood and Cleveleys Lions, said: “Every year we as a club support children from Chernobyl.

“It is a project we’re only too happy to continue, because these children need a break.”