Igor in Vesnova with 'Mama Marie'.

Igor ‘home’ in Mayo for Christmas

NEXT Tuesday, December 19, Santa will provide a special through the night sleigh-ride escort to Dublin Airport from the Chernobyl affected regions of Belarus for a group of children with special needs who will begin a two-week long Christmas rest and recuperation stay in counties across Ireland.

Host families from nine counties will welcome the children for the start of their life-prolonging respite holiday, during which time radiation levels in the children drop by nearly 50% and up to two years is added to their life expectancy.

The trip, code named Operation Sleigh Ride, has been organised by Adi Roche’s Chernobyl Children International (CCI) charity which has brought more than 25,500 children to Ireland to stay with host families since 1991.

Within this group of remarkable children is 17-year-old Igor Shadzhou who lives in Vesnova Children's Mental Asylum, who will be returning to Mayo to spend Christmas for his Irish family.

Igor is just one of thousands of children who were abandoned to bleak orphanages as babies. When CCI first found Igor, the conditions in which he lived were inhumane. His communications skills were almost non-existent and he was prone to biting, scratching and spitting. Igor has lived with huge physical impairment all his life.

Through CCI’s intervention, Igor has been able to receive the love, care and attention he so desperately needed and deserved.

A wheelchair specially adapted to Igor’s needs has given him mobility and freedom. Igor loves to listen to music - a DJ at heart who loves spending time with his host brothers over Christmas, catching up on the latest chart hits.

Igor comes to Ireland twice a year as part of CCI’s Rest and Recuperation Programme to his host family Marie and Dermot Cox in Castlebar. Marie is the medical coordinator for the charity, but she volunteers her time to host Igor, on top of her work with the charity.

Marie makes regular visits to Belarus to oversee the charity’s Irish-funded medical care programme and the development of its de-institutionalisation programmes.

Igor can look forward to a big welcome in Dublin Airport and back home in Mayo.