Thank you for taking the time to visit my fundraising page.  

At the end of October, I'll be running all 26.2 miles (42km) of the Dublin Marathon to raise money for Laura Case Trust.  Laura Case was a medical student, who was tragically killed in an accident while she was away on her medical elective.  Her family set up the trust to raise funds for hospitals, and education, in deprived areas.

My decision to support Laura Case Trust follows my own elective in the Solomon Islands, which on the surface is an idyllic paradise.  Working there taught me that despite the gorgeous surroundings, life there is very tough.  Basic medication is immensely difficult to come by and Gizo Hospital (which caters for 70,000 people across several islands) often relies on donated supplies.  The hospital was shaken by an earthquake and then mostly washed away by a tsunami in April 2007 (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2007/us2007aqbk/).  When I visited in 2008, over a year on, they were still feeling the effects: Only 2 wards were open and patients were mainly cared for on the general ward, with no facility to segregate by gender, age or contagious condition.  The staff accommodation had not yet been re-built and the nurses were living in UNICEF tents, where they'd been for over a year.  While I was there, we had to check with the pharmacy that drugs (very simple antibiotics) were available before prescribing them, we ran out of sterile gauze and the ultrasound machine was broken making care of pregnant mothers very difficult.  We had only very basic blood tests and xrays to aid our work and any other tests had to be sent to Australia for analysis (at great expense) - so these were seldom done.  Sadly, I also had to watch patients die from preventable / treatable conditions because of the lack of resources.  

Sometime after I left (when the ultrasound was again working), I sent out some ultrasound gel at the request of Dr Mike (who I'd worked under).  He was so grateful and sent the following:

'Thank you for the ultrasound jelly, now received.  You should have seen the look on Samson the radiographer's face.  He is so happy.'  In the UK, we take such things for granted!

When I think of how advanced our own medicine is, it breaks my heart to think of all the hardship there and how difficult it is to access simple healthcare.  Please help Gizo Hospital and the thousands of hospitals like it by sponsoring me for the marathon.  Any support you can give will be greatly appreciated both by me and by those who will benefit from the projects supported by Laura Case Trust.  

Thank you for all your help, 

Di

***************************************************************************************************************************************

Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It's also the most efficient way to sponsor me: The Laura Case Trust gets your money faster and, if you're a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.