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"A day out at Lincoln Castle for a dozen Ukrainian kids. Nothing unusual there, perhaps. But these children live in the shadow of Chernobyl, and this month-long stay in Lincoln could help add up to 2 years to their lives if studies of such recuperative holidays are correct.

These holidays have been going on since the 1990s, mainly taking children from Belarus to the UK, other parts of Europe and North America. But the charity that brought these children here had to pay £70 per head to get them a British visa. If they'd been from Belarus they'd have got here for nothing. So Chernobyl charities are now lobbying the government to drop the fees, as they feel they're unfair. "Radiation doesn't recognise borders" as one charity says.

Its perhaps surprising that children are still suffering from Chernobyl, more than 20 years after the accident. But as football mad Zhenya says, "Very often I catch colds because my immune system is weak. But I still score lots of goals!""

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