I’ll tell you in a moment how a pair of £10 shoes can help transform the life of someone who’s suffering.

But first, I want to tell you about Chandra.

Chandra could have given up. He didn’t.

Because his parents both had leprosy, Chandra and his family were cast out from their village in Nepal.

Banished.

“We were forced to live far away in the middle of the forest where no one else would have to be in contact with us,” he said. A few years later, Chandra’s parents died. And leprosy struck him, too.

Today, Chandra is a grown man who lives in a broken body.

Repeated infections and injuries due to untreated leprosy destroyed nearly all his fingers.

Even the simple act of walking is risky. Without protective shoes, his feet — twisted and insensitive to pain because of the nerve damage from leprosy — could become cut or ulcerated, and then infected.

Even now, Chandra could give up. He hasn’t.

Today, I’m asking you not to give up on determined souls like Chandra, even though leprosy has left them devastated.

Imagine losing the ability to walk after years of physical torment, scorn, discrimination and humiliation all because of leprosy.

We can help. Right now. Today.

Since we were founded as a Christian charity in 1874, we’ve made huge progress against the disease. But there are many regions in the poorest parts of the world where leprosy still strikes. And as Chandra could tell you, it’s just as dreaded and devastating as it ever was.

But with your help, we can provide a pair of protective shoes and other life-transforming care for someone whose feet have been horribly damaged..

These shoes are literally a lifeline, because they not only help a leprosy-affected person regain their mobility — they help them reclaim their life.

The most wonderful part is that it costs just £10 for one pair.

Just £10 to give a suffering person the chance to walk, work and live a normal life again.

You or I might not even think about slipping on a pair of shoes. But for someone who must walk miles upon miles on swollen, nerve-damaged feet, protective shoes can be life-changing.

Mobility is necessary to work in fields or collect water from the well. Protective shoes mean the difference between someone becoming self-sufficient or plunging further into poverty.

Someone like Chandra.

Because leprosy so greatly damaged his hands and feet, the neighbours in the village where he lives had completely isolated him.

“Sometimes people run away when they see me or walk in the middle of the road to avoid me,” he told us.

Chandra was given protective footwear. Now, he proudly wears his shoes every day. He can walk. And work! It’s a true blessing that something so simple is the key to such enormous change.

That’s the amazing transformation your gift can bring. It’s why I pray you can help today.

Can you send a gift to provide these special, important shoes? Each pair is just £10.

Each £10 you send for a pair of shoes will:

• Help protect damaged feet and minimise limping with corrective insoles
• Ease the pressure on ulcerated, nerve-damaged, fragile skin
• Prevent cuts, blisters and infection
• Restore mobility so men, women and children disabled by leprosy can walk, work and take better care of themselves

Even more, the shoes you help us provide will be a symbol of your own walk of faith and the Christ-like compassion you show to people like Chandra.

Your kindness heals their wounds, provides reconstructive surgery, even offers counselling on how to cope with this ancient and frightening disease. With your help, they are literally transformed from social outcasts into thriving people.

Chandra never gave up.

I hope you won’t give up on him, either. Please send a gift today.

Thank you for the gift of healing and hope your generosity and compassion will bring to someone who has leprosy.

Yours sincerely,
Peter Walker, National Director

P.S. Just £10 provides a pair of protective shoes and other life-transforming help for someone whose feet have been permanently disabled by the crippling effects of leprosy.

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