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Just over three hours away from the world's worst nuclear accident, brother and sister Pavel and Masha had no idea about what was about to unfold nearby.

Growing up in Gomel, now in modern-day Belarus, the pair lived only 213km from the Chernobyl power plant based near Ukrainian town, Pripyat.

But on April 25, 1986, little did the siblings know that they would be close to the first - and most disastrous - nuclear accident in history.

(Image: Heather Pudner)

The blast created deadly radioactive fallout 400 times larger than the Hiroshima bomb and it's thought that thousands of people in Ukraine and the surrounding countries died as a result.

The Gomel region of neighbouring Belarus receved 70 per cent of the fallout and although the most dangerous areas were evacuated, millions continued to live on and eat food grown in contaminated land.

Pripyat, the town nearest the power plant, is still uninhabitable today.

Years later, in a bid to help the children nearby have some sort of normal life, families from south Wales offered to host the kids for a summer.

Heather Pudner was working at the University College of Swansea, now Swansea University, at the time, when she heard about a colleague in the mechanical engineering department who was originally from Gomel.

So the department helped to organise the scheme.

Little Pavel, who was eight at the time, and Masha, 7, went to stay with Heather and husband Huw, a primary school teacher, and their children Matthew and Hannah, all living in Skewen at the time.

"Masha and Pavel stayed from June 4 to July 27 1994," Heather said.

"I worked in the university and an email went around saying would you like to help?

"We ended up with about 14 children to start and we had a mixture of people - from Gower and Swansea city.

"The children were aged from eight to about 16 and were from Gomel.

"We had a brother and sister whose parents worked at the university in Gomel.

"They looked like happy children, but were quite small for their age.

"They looked healthy and didn't look sick. But we just knew it would be better for them to be here for a few weeks."

During their stay, the pair enjoyed Welsh treats - such as staying in a caravan in the Gower and having barbecues.

"We did all the things we normally do," Heather said. "We had a caravan for a week in Horton in the Gower. The ocean was a revelation to them.

"We had barbecues outside. They were very easy to please and they were quite old fashioned.

But with their English virtually non existent there was the problem of communicating.

However, thankfully the Welsh family managed to find common ground with Masha and Pavel thanks to their pet dog.

Heather added: "Our dog Pepper was very cheerful and loved anybody.

"We found out they lived in an apartment and didn't have a dog. They were shy children. but they would play in the garden and speak Russian to each other and play and feed the dog.

"Although there was very little language, there was lots of body language and friendliness and they started to relax. It's a very big deal to come here and know no one."

But for Heather, it was giving the kids a break from the higher levels of radiation, by letting them have a "normal" summer.

Years later, Heather was still in contact with the pair's mother, and the families send Christmas cards every year until about 1994.

Then contact faded.

"It was really sad to see them go," Heather said.

"We were aware of the disaster and it's not a shock how it's been portrayed in the TV show .

"I was trying to get the family to eat seaweed as it had iodine in. But we had no idea.

"I'm firmly anti-nuclear power as we don't really know its limits. To hear there had been an accident in a poor place was hard."

(Image: Daily Mirror)

What happened at Chernobyl?

At 1.23am on April 25, 1986, Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station was shut down for routine maintenance.

In the moments before the shutdown, the decision was taken to use the opportunity to perform a test to discover whether there was enough electrical power to operate emergency equipment and the core cooling pumps until the diesel power supply came online in the event of a shutdown.

By the early hours of April 26, as the test was well underway, the fuel in the reactor ruptured. The fuel particles reacted with the water creating a steam explosion which destroyed the reactor core.

A second explosion just two minutes later sealed the fate of the power plant, killed 30 people instantly and ensured that Chernobyl became a by-word for everything that was wrong about nuclear power.

The fireball, which blew off the reactor's heavy steel and concrete lid, caused high radiation levels over a 20-mile radius of the doomed plant.

But the town of Pripyat was not evacuated until 30 hours after the explosion.

And the silent killer continued to pour out of the reactor for 10 days following the disaster, poisoning the air, the land, the water supply, the food chain and people.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

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How did the disaster affect Wales?

In the days following the disaster, the UK Government banned the sale of sheep in parts of Wales, Cumbria and Scotland and the animals couldn't be moved from the land.

Then, on June 21, it was announced that government restrictions were in place and animals on Welsh farms were only allowed to enter the food chain after rigorous safety tests.

At the time, the Western Mail reported that “more than 4,000 farms in Gwynedd, Clwyd and Powys” would be affected by the restrictions, which were supposed to last no more than three months.

But in 1996 - ten years after the disaster - sheep in Wales were still failing radioactive tests.

At the peak in 1987, nearly 23,000 sheep in Wales failed.

Sheep that were once being sold for £40 were now only going for around £10.

It had a devastating impact on farmers and their families .

The government restrictions from the Food Standards Agency were lifted on June 1, 2012 - a full 26 years later.

Wales and Chernobyl links today

As well as hosting children in the immediate aftermath, families across Wales have continued to open up their homes to those who are still feeling the after effects of the disaster.

Two decades on, Chernobyl continues to claim fresh victims, robbing children of their parents, their health and a happy childhood.

In 2015, eight girls from Korosten in northern Ukraine spent a month in Swansea. And 13 youngsters from Bazar, Ukraine, enjoyed a break in north Wales that same summer.

Visits also took place

The charity Chernobyl Children's Lifeline said lengthy break can do most benefit to their immune system.

Children from the region are still suffering from high levels of radiation poisoning which can cause heart and thyroid problems.