In 2008, Belinda and her husband Steve accepted two boys, aged eight and nine, into their home for part of the summer. “The best behaved children from the local school of Kalinkavichy were picked, it was supposed to be a reward for the ones who worked hard all year. The area is pretty poor, but they wanted every child to have the chance to leave the disaster zone, so they decided not to choose them based on wealth.

“Kalinkavichy is 40 miles from where the disaster happened, and the wind was blowing that way on the day so they took a big hot splash of it. It was poor before thanks to few employment opportunities, but things became much worse after this. There’s already a bigger population of women to men there, and it’s normal to make their own vodka in the area which resulted in a lot of alcoholism, particularly with the men. But once their homes and land were infected by radiation, no one would buy them so they had to stay. It was the only investment, the only money and the only home they had,” Belinda explains.

Because of the economic state, the first children the Tooleys hosted, and those who followed in the subsequent years, came over in rags and were in desperate need of medical and dental attention.

“You’re not expected to buy things for the children, but of course you do, because they have so little. The only thing the charity asks is that you have some pyjamas and pants ready for them when they arrive, and that you make sure the clothes they come in are returned to them. Their clothes are usually very dirty and falling apart, but because they only have something like four items of clothes each, it’s a huge deal for them.

“While they’re here the charity gives them £50 or so to spend in the charity shops to get themselves lots of new things and a new school uniform. By the time they leave they have a full 30 kilos of clothes to take back home, which they’re incredibly excited about.”

Chernobyl: how one woman is adding years to the lives of children affected by the disaster