A UKRAINIAN architect has presented a Malvern community champion with a framed painting, honouring her work after the Chernobyl nuclear fallout of 1986.
The disaster claimed many lives and severely affected the health of residents across Belarus, Ukraine and today’s Russia.
The world’s humanitarian response showed the best side of human nature and included immediate treatment for victims and rehabilitation and restorative help for many.
Nowhere was this more evident than in Malvern where The Chernobyl Children Lifeline, a national charity was helped by many local people to provide holidays and health assistance for well over one hundred children over more than twenty-five years.
Dorothy Knights and her late husband Jim helped to organise the arrangements for accommodating the large number of children and planning the programmes for their stays during the annual visits.
Denys Bielov, a Ukrainian architect, during a recent visit to Great Malvern Priory, presented Dorothy with a framed print of a painting by Whittington resident Margret Hallmark.
The ‘Ukrainian Child’ is the first painting in a triptych which will be introduced to the public soon.
With the theme ‘Give peace a chance’, Margret shows in the three paintings aspects of the war in Ukraine with the strong appeal for peace.
Denys was delighted to have had the chance of meeting Dorothy and expressing his thanks to all the people of Malvern for their friendship and help.
Affected himself at the time of the disaster, Denys received treatment for the removal of a brain tumour in Marseilles, France.
His father, a radiologist, was seconded to Chernobyl to assist with the clear up operation and suffered from the aftereffects of radiation.
