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Manchester Cathedral

Ukrainians from Cheetham Hill joined the congregation including civic dignitaries for the two-hour service in remembrance of those who died and those who continue to live with the consequences of the world's worst nuclear accident.

Thousands died and thousands more were left seriously ill and thousands were left homeless as whole villages and towns had to be abandoned when fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Belarus contaminated land, food and water supplies.

Much of the land remains uninhabitable and Ukrainian people are still dying from illnesses caused by the blast while children continue to be born with deformities and illnesses believed to be associated with exposure to radiation suffered by their parents.

The memorial service was opened by Volodymyr Szlachetko, chair of the Manchester Association of Ukrainians and involved prayers and choral music in both English and Ukrainian and involved clergy from the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Choral music was provided by the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church of St Volodymyr the great in Oldham.

Manchester developed close links with Chernobyl after the 1986 disaster when, in 1995, the city became the first in Britain to establish a branch of the Chernobyl Children's Project (CCP) charity set up to help child victims of the explosion.

Since then CCP(UK) from its headquarters in Mount Street, Manchester has grown to include 24 groups between Inverness in Scotland and Totnes in Devon, and it was registered as an independent charity in 1996.

During 1997 the Project has brought 350 children for recuperative holidays in Wales, Scotland and England and has
delivered ambulances and humanitarian aid to hospitals, schools and children's homes in the most contaminated regions of Belarus.