THIS married couple have been welcoming disadvantaged children from Eastern Europe into their home for five years.

But now they have gone one step further and are braving temperatures of minus 10C in Chernobyl to get a better understanding of the lives of under 12s.

Gaynor and Alastair Manthorpe want "to raise awareness" of the need for host families in Essex so that more children born and raised at the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster can be given a break from their lives back home.

Before leaving for their trip on Saturday, 61 year-old Mrs Manthorpe of Lodge Road, Bicknacre, said: "We will be visiting some of the children we looked after last year when we reach the Ukraine, which will be lovely but we will also be speaking to children that we haven't met before.

"When they come over, they always stay in twos so that if they wake up in the night they have someone they can speak to. They usually only speak a little English and we have some translation books in Belorussian and Ukrainian."

The children are chosen by the charity Chernobyl Children's Life Line and are only allowed to come over to England once with the scheme.

Aged between nine and 12 years old, they stay for a month and get taken to events and activities.

Retired Mrs Gaynor said: "We normally have five host families in the URC Billericay group but this year two of the regular couples have had to pull out, so we need more.

"The children all join together in a group and either visit attractions in London or take part in assault courses. It's all a lot of fun and we often go with them, but you don't have to.

"The children that come over are very needy and often their parents have alcohol problems or one of their parents may have died or it could be that their family is incredibly poor.

"I think the charity prefers host families to be in a couple, just in case one of the children is ill and the other needs to be taken out but having other children would be no problem."

If you would like to get involved in hosting children from Chernobyl please contact Gaynor on 01245 328 235 or call David Gladstone on 01277 653 462.