Hello, my name is Alice Beal and I am a second year (soon to be final year) Children’s Nurse studying at the University of Surrey.

I have grown up in the UK, with the wonderful NHS providing world class medical assistance whenever myself and my family have needed it. As well as observing the dedicated medical and nursing teams during my nursing placements at various NHS hospitals (including Great Ormond Street and Winchester and Basingstoke Hospitals). I have witnessed first-hand the incredible medical miracles of childbirth, lifesaving surgery and nurses and doctors working seamlessly together to ensure children are protected from illness and injury. Allowing them to develop and explore the world as freely as children deserve. I am hugely passionate about continuing the progression of this field of nursing, to ensure all children can easily access the best healthcare possible.

Throughout my studies, I have become hyperaware of the extreme inequalities of healthcare in different communities in the UK and in other countries. I fundamentally believe that all children should be provided with all that they need to be children- not to be limited by sickness and poor healthcare or access to help.

During one of my placements in an Urgent Care Centre, I discovered a love and grew a determination to pursue a carer in emergency medicine, as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner. This role requires an additional 3 years of training at university and a wide variety of experience. Therefore, I have decided to take the opportunity this August to use my elective placement (a mandatory 4 week time for nursing students to organise their own placements to further their learning in medicine that interests them) to travel to Sri Lanka to work in a specialised children’s hospital in Kandy.

This placement will involve me shadowing nurses and doctors in the emergency department and in surgical theatres for 3 weeks. For the final week, I will live with a Sri Lankan family, learning about traditional and community nursing, health promotion and disease prevention.

This is such an exciting opportunity that I cannot wait to experience. I want to widen my understanding of different healthcare provisions, health inequalities and what I can do when I qualify to help healthcare to become more accessible.

I am therefore hoping to raise money to help fund this trip. I am asking for extra donations because I wish to present the hospital a cheque with money, that they can use to buy valuable resources that are fundamental to give the care they do.

Please help in donating anything at all that you can. I am truly grateful to all of you that help me to make this experience a reality. I will be posting updates on the trip and a post to show what I have learnt and been up to, and of course the amount of money I was able to donate to the hospital.

Please do get in contact if you have any further questions, I will be more than happy to talk to you about anything.

Thanks for everything

Alice Beal

IMPORTANT- (Due to the devastating and saddening attacks that occurred this April in Sri Lanka, I am still awaiting to see if Work the World (the company organising this trip) will allow it to go ahead. I will therefore still be fundraising (as I had planned this trip since January) but will ensure I give money donated back if the trip must be aborted. I believe now, more than ever, in the importance of my participation in this placement, and to help to contribute something to give back to the amazing nurses and doctors working hard).