Dear Friends

As you know I am celebrating a big birthday this autumn. Having got to an age where I’m working on de-cluttering our home, I'd love it if instead of buying a gift you'd contribute to the work of an amazing man in our village.

Dr Leo Cheng is a Consultant Oral and Facial Reconstructive Surgeon in Cambridge and London. For the past 7 years he’s given up two weeks of his annual leave to work on the Mercy Ship. He gives his time and skills freely, as well as covering the expense of the journey each year.

Mercy Ships is a charity whose main function is to provide free surgery and medical care to those who would otherwise not have access to it. They operate a hospital ship, the Africa Mercy, which is fully equipped with six operating theatres, a 78-bed patient ward and accommodation for more than 450 volunteer crew members.  The ship docks off a different country, usually on the West Africa coast, for about 10 months at a time.

Leo Cheng gives many talks around Cambridge about his experiences. I encourage you to support his work, maybe not only financially via this page but also by going to one of his talks. What he does is truly inspiring, there can be no doubt of the astounding transformation he has made to 100s of people's lives over these past 7 years - for people who would not have access to medical care, let alone advanced surgery, if it were not for Mercy Ships and volunteers like Leo.

Leo has just returned from 2 weeks onboard the Africa Mercy, currently docked in Togo. His daughter Kat also spent 6 weeks onboard this summer working as a catering assistant. We saw many photos of her working in the ship’s eye clinic when she was out there with her mum, dad and sister 2 years ago.

Please do read more on the links below, and if you feel able to contribute financially any money raised via this page will go to the Mercy Ships charity to support Leo’s work. Leo takes out equipment and supplies with him, so all monies raised can be used in a number of ways to make a real and lasting difference to countless lives.

Here is an article in our village newspaper about Leo’s 2009 visit to Benin:

http://hicourier.com/2010/02/local-surgeon%E2%80%99s-mercy-mission-to-africa/

And also about his (and Kat's) recent visit to Togo (click on the September 2010 issue):

http://hicourier.com/print-editions/