A UKRAINIAN teenager has returned to West Fife seven years after first being brought to the area with the Fife Chernobyl Children's Lifeline group.

At the age of 11, Andrey was part of a group who came to the area for a recuperative holiday organised by the charity to help youngsters affected by the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.

He has now returned to the Dalgety Bay home of Jacqueline Niven and her family – who he stayed with back in 2015 – while the conflict continues in his home country.

Having fled with his mum and two younger siblings to Germany at the beginning of the war, with his dad and grandparents remaining in Ukraine, they have now returned home while Andrey (whose surname we haven't included for security reasons) has come to the UK.

The 18-year-old is continuing his computing course at the University of Ukraine online from West Fife although this was halted temporarily last week because of the latest bombing in the country.

Jacqueline, who has helped the Fife Link of the Chernobyl Children's Lifeline raise more than £10,000 since the outbreak of the war to help affected families, said they were currently trying to help Andrey settle in and get him organised to help him support himself.

Late last week, he was still getting paperwork which will enable him to get a National Insurance number and other paperwork which will help him do things like open a bank account, apply for a bus pass and, hopefully, get a part-time job.

"It is a bit chicken-and-egg but you cannot get things without identification," explained Jacqueline. "When we were asked about if he could come, it was in the summer holidays.

"Getting all the paperwork took so much time so when he arrived, we were all back at school and work. A lot of these places are nine-to-five so it took time coming together.

"We managed to get him over in September. He is studying online with the University of Ukraine although that stopped last week because of the bombing so there are no lessons this week.

"He is also taken for English lessons at Inverkeithing Civic Centre.

"We are hoping this week they give him a National Insurance number. He isn't going to qualify for Universal Credit because he is studying so goodness knows how he is supposed to support himself.

"He is hoping to look for a part-time job to work round his studies. Hopefully, by the end of the week, we will be able to take a step forward getting him on the way to be able to work."

In the Ukraine, Andrey was a keen volleyball player and one of the first things the Nivens have been doing was trying to ensure he had somewhere he could play.

"He went for a try at Glenrothes but they told him he was too good – he played for the national team for his age group," explained Jacqueline. "They put him in touch with the City of Edinburgh, who train at South Queensferry, to see how he gets on there. That was a big part of his life in the Ukraine."

Although seven years older, Andrey still remembers some of the places around West Fife which he was taken to on his first visit.

Jacqueline said: "Then they came in pairs and we had him and another little boy. He remembers some things. He remembers we took him for fish and chips – I don't think he was that keen – and he remembers some of the random places we went to.

"That year we did every park in Fife because it was free! It was the summer when he last came but it is a bit colder now!"

While the national charity is currently involved in major support programmes in Ukraine, the Fife branch has been busy helping the young people and their families who they have given aid to previously.

"The local community have just come out and helped so much – we have all sorts of events, tribute nights, a ukelele choir concert," said Jacqueline.

"We met our £10,000 target with the charity. We are quite lucky the Place in the Bay in Dalgety Bay are letting us gather there and they give us a free stall at the market so we are there with our jigsaws and whatever else.

"The last year we had them over from Ukraine, the Fife link had 10 families and a leader that year. There is only one family we haven't been able to get in touch with. The other nine families and the leader, we have been helping them financially.

"Some are in Poland and Germany, other ones have gone back.

"We are still fundraising and the money is going directly back to those families. Some of it has helped with transport costs, one of the girls has had a baby of her own and health care is not great over there so it is helping with medication and things like nappies.

"Because of where Andrey's family are from, it is near the Belarusian border, it has been quite quiet and a lot of people have been returning. They were not expecting what has happened over the last couple of days."

Anyone wanting to find out more about the fundraising and the work of the Fife Link of the Chernobyl Children's Lifeline, can do so by visiting www.facebook.com/CCLLFife.