<p>Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.</p> <p>Last summer we hosted 2 children from Belarus as part of the Chernobyl Children's Lifeline. &nbsp;The south of Belarus suffered the worst of the fallout from the Chernobyl disaster and many people still live in the contaminated areas and have no choice but to ingest the radiation through the local produce. &nbsp;This visit gives the chance for the children to eat uncontaminated food and also to get health checkups (like Dentists and Opticians visits) which are not available cheaply at home.</p> <p>Our children, Katya and Valiera were wonderful, polite and friendly. &nbsp;They fitted into our family straight away and despite us having no kitchen or garden at the time the visit went very well. The children ate heartily, particularly fresh fruit (strawberries and grapes were a favourite), &nbsp;despite speaking very little English (Google Translate on the iPhone was our main method of communication) Katya in particular learned some words - 'Katya Hungry' as I remember! &nbsp;We had a very memorable trip to Wales to visit the local attractions including a barbeque and bonfire on Angle beach and Valiera's first swimming trip.</p> <p>For more details on the Chernobyl Children's Lifeline take a look <a href="http://www.ccll.org.uk/ho/">here</a>&nbsp;and for photos of last year's visit look at the blog for the West London Branch <a href="http://ccllwestlondon.wordpress.com/2011/08/21/photo-diary-the-visit-2011/">here</a>.</p> <p>So, I am running the London Marathon on Sunday 22nd April. This will be my second marathon, but unlike last time I am now on the wrong side of 40 and having completed a marathon already, I know the pain that I will go through. &nbsp;Training has been OK, broken by two ski trips and two work trips in the last two weeks (at least I should be tapering then anyway). &nbsp;No particular time is aimed for, I would just like to get around in one piece.</p> <p>It costs around &pound;450 for the travel and expenses for a single child so I have a target of enough for 2 children to come and stay with us again this summer, given that we now have a kitchen and garden it should be a breeze!</p> <p>If any UBS staff member donates, please keep details of your donation and email it to me so I can claim the UBS matched giving of your donation.</p>