26 April 2006 - Elena was playing
outside 20 years ago. Not far away the Chernobyl
reactor was melting down. Since then both her
and her sister have had brain cancer. Facts and
figures, scientists and politicians, can't tell
you the terrible consquences of nuclear power
gone wrong. Only the victims can.
On April 26, 1986 I was five
years old. I can't remember this day very well
but it turned out to be a tragedy not only for
our family, but also for thousands of people,
from many countries. We don't often discuss that
day in our family. But I remember what my mum
says about it. It was a really nice warm and sunny
day. I was outside with my elder brother and my
little 13-day-old sister, who was sleeping in
a pram under a tree.
Suddenly dark clouds appeared
in the sky and a strong wind started to blow.
Our mum told us to come into the house. While
we were gathering our toys, she was trying to
take the pram inside. It took her a long time.
The first drops of rain fell on my little sister.
It may have been those few drops that changed
our lives.
At first we were not told anything
about the accident. They "didn't want people
to panic." But the authorities were afraid
that the second reactor could blow up. Trains
were made ready to evacuate people from our city.
Gomel is not very far from Chernobyl.
It was only later we found out
that the rain was radioactive.
Since then the word radiation has come into our
life and dominated its course. Chernobyl deprived
me of many joys of my childhood: the feeling of
warm sun rays on my skin which I liked so much
turned to be radioactive rays and we had to stay
in the shadow; the water in the river where we
had splashed about was contaminated. Worse of
all, I had to refuse all my favourite treats -
mushrooms and berries from the forest. As time
passed I got used to these restrictions and began
to realise they were for our own sake.
Life took its usual course;
I grew up and went to school. I studied very well.
In 1998 I graduated from high school with honours
and dreamed of entering a university. And here
again Chernobyl interfered. Instead of an educational
establishment I found myself in a medical one.
On the day I was diagnosed with a brain tumour,
my parents were coming back from Minsk where my
sister also had just undergone a brain tumour
operation.
I didn't know how to tell my
mum that we had to go back to Minsk again for
another operation straight after my sisters.
This was how Chernobyl poisoned my youth. It deprived
me of my beautiful hair. During the operation
they cut my motor nerve so I had to learn to move
again.
Mum still remembers that after
the operation I was taken to the intensive ward,
I had an extensive brain bleeding and it was a
matter of life and death. But thanks to the doctors
and my parents' care I survived. And I still had
the most precious things a person may have - my
life and my family. But I learned to appreciate
that the hard way.
It was only due to my family's
support that I could overcome the ordeal and stand
on my feet again. Due to that ordeal when I was
on the verge between life and death I learned
to appreciate and love my life. Now I realize
that you should never give up, you should always
hope for the better and enjoy every moment, as
these moments make up our happiness. To understand
all this at the age of 25 I had to go through
intense trauma of brain cancer at 17. During the
last eight years I had to work hard not to be
confined to the wheel chair and to learn how to
walk again, to realise my dream and study at university.
Twenty years later, it angers
me to be told that the nuclear industry is attempting
to play down the effects of the Chernobyl disaster.
Now they even want to dump nuclear waste in my
country.
For those people who like to
say nuclear power is the future I can only suggest
they come and spend some time in my home town
with people who are living with radioactive contamination
every day. Perhaps then they will have a different
sense of the future?
Nuclear power ruined my life.
Don't let it ruin yours.
