Exhausted? Demoralised? Dejected? Ms Adi Roche was having none of it yesterday as she returned as head of the Chernobyl Children's Project (CCP) to see off the latest convoy of humanitarian aid for Belarus and western Russia.
In her first public appearance since the presidential election count, Ms Roche showed no sign that her energy levels had been drained by her seven-week nationwide campaign.
Smiling for cameramen in front of four trucks stocked with £1 million worth of food, medicine and equipment, she took no time settling back into her role as executive director of the organisation which she founded. "It's like the blood that runs through my veins. It's very much a part of me and a part of my life," she said of the CCP.
Her mind yesterday was very much on the French truckers' dispute, which the convoy will attempt to avoid by going through the English port of Harwich before heading to the Netherlands.
The humanitarian aid is urgently needed, she said, as temperatures fall to 25C in the areas worst affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. "We want to be able to get in before the winter gets too severe and takes its toll. As the winter months go on, the people get ground down; their immune systems are already damaged and what we have here will help their survival."
The cargo includes child-dose pain-killers, cough mixtures and vitamins; 10 tonnes of porridge, tinned fish and vegetables; £250,000 worth of dental equipment; 220 pairs of wellington boots and five washing machines, bound for an orphanage. It brings to £9.5 million the value of aid delivered directly by the CCP since 1993.
More funds will be raised for the project through Ms Roche's bestselling book, The Children of Chernobyl, which is to be relaunched in spring with a special chapter on her presidential campaign. "I'm going to write about the experience of the election and maybe say an awful lot more than I have done during the election."
Ms Roche paid tribute to retiring Labour leader, Mr Dick Spring, and former adviser, Mr Fergus Finlay, for their roles in her campaign. "Professionally and personally, their kindness knew no bounds to me in the darkest moments of the campaign - and there certainly were many. They were just so strong and so sensitive and so open that it was a privilege really for me to have been able to work with them."
Ms Roche will fly out later this week to meet the convoy en route to Belarus.
