Chernoby's legacy

ON April 26, 1986 a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine - which, at that time, was known as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic - exploded during an authorized systems test.

The accident led to large quantities of radioactive fuel being released into the air near the town of Pripyat.

It is the worst nuclear power plant accident in history - the only level seven event on the International Nuclear Event Scale - and spread radiation across much of Europe.

The effects of the disaster are still felt, most profoundly in neighbouring Belarus.

The Edinburgh-based Friends of Chernobyl's Children (FOCC) formed four years ago to help detoxify the immune systems of those children affected by the disaster, as well as offering international friendship.