Brendan O'Brien, the director and one of the founders of Irish charity the Chernobyl Children's Appeal (CCA) died in a car crash in Belarus yesterday.
Mr O'Brien (56) from Skerries Co Dublin was with two other Irish members of the registered charity when their car was in a collision close to their base in Minsk.
His colleague Mr Greg Robinson (50) from Swords,Co Dublin, sustained severe head injuries in the crash. A third man, Mr Charles Reilly, also from Skerries, escaped uninjured. The group's interpreter and the driver of the second car were both killed.
Mr O'Brien leaves behind four children, between 15 and 24.
His wife, Patrica also a founder member of the charity, told ireland.comBrendan was one of the first people to bring Belarussian children suffering from high levels of radiation from the Chernobyl fallout into the State. The charity brings about 600 children per annum into Ireland."Brendan had gone to visit the family of one of the children and was actually quite close to the base when the accident happened," Ms O'Brien said.
"The last conversation I had with him was about aid and two roofs that needed to be mended over there," she said.
Ms O'Brien said the charity is run from the O'Brien family home in Skerries. Brendan, who was on sick leave from work for the last three years, had recently given almost all his free time to the project.
The main focus of its operations is School 14 in the town of Mozyr.
