A SCHOOLBOY from near the disaster-hit Chernobyl nuclear plant is spending a summer month in Penwortham - to help him survive winters at home.

Chris and Rick Czyzewski of Stanley Grove, Penwortham, are to look after 11-year-old Sergai as he pays his third visit to the city from Belarus -- a country which was stricken by nuclear fallout following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Sergai is one of a dozen children coming to the UK on Saturday courtesy of the charity Medicine and Chernobyl to help build up their strength and enjoy a holiday.

The children will stay with host parents for a month and have an interpreter on hand to help out with language problems.

The youngsters will be in Preston thanks to the Ribble Valley branch of Medicine and Chernobyl, based in Walton-le-Dale -- a national charity which helps people affected by the nuclear disaster.

Mrs Czyzewski, who works at BAE Systems, said: "Sergai is a lovely boy. He is happy with fish and chips and videos, and he loves tomatoes and bananas which are luxuries to him. He talks in Polish to Rick as his English is quite basic." While on holiday in the UK the children will be visiting Alton Towers, Blue Planet and Camelot in Chorley as well as swimming and enjoying different activities with their host families.

Dr Igor Kot, president of Medicine and Chernobyl, said: "It is important, due to the lack of proper nutrition in Belarus, and the need to recuperate the immune system, that the children should be removed from the radioactive zone, even for a short time.

"Investigations show that a child taken away for one month can survive better during the winter months and the radioactive measuring equipment demonstrated elimination or a low level of radioactivity after such a vacation."