Later on today I’ll be in Monmouth taking part in a street collection for a charity called Friends of Chernobyl Children. It’s not my favourite occupation probably because my mother taught me not to talk to strangers but I’ll be doing it anyway because I think it’s important to continue supporting the work done by this organisation both throughout Britain and more particularly in my part of Wales.

You may be thinking that the Chernobyl disaster was such a long time ago and that the effects of the incident are now safely confined to the history books. Well, today happens to be only the twentieth anniversary of what happened and in fact, twenty years is only a blink in the eye of the unfolding of the worst nuclear accident there’s ever been. We’re only now becoming fully aware of what the long term results will be as the children directly affected by the explosion have children of their own.

As Friends of Chernobyl Children we think the world owes it to the youngsters affected by the disaster and to their offspring to give them the best start in life possible. Of course, we think that about all the children in the world but we’ve decided to concentrate on this particular group. We bring children over from the countries affected and mainly from the former Soviet republic of Belarus to give them every year a month or so of quality food, medical attention and TLC whose long term effects in their lives are incalculable. That work needs to continue it’s becoming clear that it must go on into the next generation.

So, today if you see me collecting in the streets of Monmouth, put something in my yellow tin and please give me an encouraging word. You could even ask me how you can get more deeply involved in the work of FOCC. As I said, a street collection is not really my favourite activity - the worst thing is when people just walk by and ignore you. On the other hand, somebody’s got to do it.