A GROUP of volunteers set off for the Chernobyl nuclear disaster area with three lorry loads of aid on Monday.
GMB Union northern organiser Terry Scarr, who is co-ordinating the mission, took his last delivery of goods from Delves Lane Methodist Church at the weekend.
He is travelling with five other volunteers to Minsk to deliver computers to schools, medical supplies to the local hospital and clothes to some of the orphanages.
Mr Scarr, of Consett, who has made aid trips for 14 years running, said he had been asked to help by the voluntary group Chernobyl North-East.
He said: "Children in the Chernobyl area are still suffering from the disaster - they are still being born with deformities."
Ethel Bunney, of Delves Lane Methodist Church, said: "There has been a fantastic response in the village to our appeal for help."
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