INSPIRATIONAL Haslemere resident Victor Mizzi OBE – who founded the ground-breaking rescue charity Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline – has died aged 84.

Mr Mizzi launched his charity in 1991 and it has gone on to provide a new lease of life for around 50,000 children affected by the devastating Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.

Shocked by the scale of the disaster, he founded the charity CCLL to give child victims recuperative breaks of four weeks in the UK – a commitment that continues to this day from its new headquarters in Alton.

Mr Mizzi masterminded operations for 25 years from his 17th-century Grade II listed Haslemere home in Petworth Road with five acres of land that he and his family moved to in September 1986. He retired as chief executive in 2016 and sold the property in 2018, moving to Headley Down just 15 minutes away.

He was appointed an OBE in 2016 in recognition of his charitable work, after having been made a MBE the year before.

A successful businessman, Mr Mizzi ran his own tour operating company Belle Air, specialising in holidays to his native Malta before taking early retirement aged 50.

His knowledge of the travel industry and contacts proved to be invaluable when persuading airline companies to give free travel to CCLL children so they could spend recuperative breaks in the UK in the homes of his network of host families.

The best-known of the children CCLL helped was Igor Pavlovets, who was conceived after the disater and born with multiple congenital limb deformities. When Mr Mizzi found him in a children’s hospital in Minsk in 1993, he brought Igor to London for surgery and he never went back. Igor is now 31, married with two children, and runs his own decorating business in London.

Mr Mizzi’s son Martin said: “My mother and I are both extremely proud of what he achieved. He has helped upwards of 50,000 children and the charity and his legacy continues.

“He lived and breathed his charity for over 25 years and none of it would have happened if it wasn’t for his hard work, dedication and passion for the cause.

“My father’s charitable work has been recognised repeatedly by the governments of the UK, Belarus and Ukraine. He has been awarded an MBE and an OBE in the UK and the government of Belarus awarded him the Order of Fracsysc Skaryna. This is the highest award in Belarus and my father was only the third person in history to receive it, as well as the only foreigner.

“My father was CCLL. He created it from nothing – from an office in his home that was once our playroom as children. He raised millions of pounds and made an everlasting difference for tens of thousands of sick children, while touching the hearts of all those he worked with over the many years he ran the charity.

“He ultimately retired because of severe ill health. He told me often he wished he could live longer so he could continue to help more children.”

Also paying tribute, close friend Hazel Smith said: “I got to know Victor over the past 24 years and what an inspiration he was. There was nothing false about him. What you saw you got – and more. The words ‘no’ and ‘can’t’ were not in his vocabulary and he worked relentlessly to give the children of Belarus and the Ukraine a chance of a better life.

“Even when he knew he was dying, it did not stop him from trying to achieve the help that was required for children in need. I’ve never met a man like him before and I don’t suppose I’ll ever meet anyone quite like him again. I am honoured to have been part of his family and long may it continue.”

* The funeral will be held at St Joseph’s Church in Grayshott at midday on Thursday, March 7. Everybody is welcome to attend and to pay their respects from 3pm. Mr Mizzi married his first wife Kerstin in 1960 and his second wife Birgitta, who is Martin’s mother, in 1984. He is survived by both and six children.