Hello there. My name is Andy Revill, I am a trainee reporter with my local paper, the Dunoon Observer. I am raising money so that I can travel out to Malawi later this year with local dental charity Smileawi.

Dunoon-based charity Smileawi began in 2012, and since then has gone from strength to strength. Nigel and Vicky Milne of the local dentists' The Hollies started the charity, which travels out each year to put on essential, lifesaving pain clinics to people in the north of Malawi.

In the north of Malawi there are no dentists, and barely a handful of dental technicians. Smileawi's dentists, dental students and volunteers do work that in many cases is genuinely lifesaving.

Recently Smileawi launched an offshoot venture, Smileawi Spanners. Alan Stewart, a mechanic, travels each year and performs essential repairs and maintenance on emergency vehicles there too.

I will be trained in the rudiments of dental nursing before I go, and will assist the professionals in their pain clinics, as well as whatever else i'm required to do. In addition I will be taking my trusty camera and tripod to document as much of the trip as possible for Smileawi and the Dunoon Observer.

The trip also has a family connection for me. My grandad, grandmother and my young mother lived in Malawi for a brief period in the early 1950s. My grandad worked as a journalist in Blantyre, and as I am now a reporter with the Dunoon Observer, it would be a trip with some special significance for myself and my family.

(Smileawi have their own avenue for donations, you can donate to them by visiting their website http://smileawi.com/ but if you would like to help me out, I would very much appreciate it. I have set the target at £2000 (£250 of which I have already gathered through donations outside this page) as this is the absolute maximum that will be required. However, any extra funds over and above what is required in the final reckoning will be donated to Smileawi.)

I am planning some bag packs and a few other silly endeavours to get some pennies together, but the full total required is listed on here for your information.

Thank you.