Meteor prize will fund ‘five miracles’ says Roche

Campaigner Adi Roche revealed the €100,000 she won in the Meteor Humanitarian Award last night would prove life saving.

The founder of the Chernobyl Children’s Project said the money would go towards vital operations for youngsters.

She said: “It will make five miracles happen for five children.”

Roche, who received the accolade at the Meteor Ireland Music Awards, said she had a great sense of pride and honour in it.

She said Ireland was the largest donator to the Belarus region, since the nuclear reactor disaster nearly 20 years ago.

She said this was an acknowledgement of Ireland’s generosity.

The campaigner said she and Bono’s wife Ali Hewson had brokered an agreement a couple of years ago to bring children from the radiation-struck area to Ireland for recuperation.

However, a ban has been placed on the taking of children out of the country and she revealed they were currently negotiating to ensure their life-saving work could continue.

After the awards show she thanked Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern and President Mary McAleese for their interventions through Europe to attempt to remove the ban.