From November 11th, for two weeks, I will be giving whatever assistance I can to an unbelievable team of volunteer medics on a healthcare expedition to Carpenter, Central Ghana. I will be mainly involved with the Hernia team, giving life changing operations to children and adults alike who are suffering from hernias, which often stop farmers from working. For people living on the breadline, 4 hours from the nearest hospital, with no money to pay for the treatment anyway, these operations give people their livelihoods back.

Your money will go towards not only the treatment we will give, but also support the building of a 'model hospital' in Carpenter itself, which will enable hundreds of thousands of people to get the healthcare they need which would otherwise be inaccessible to them.

I am not the one to read to be inspired to donate however. Simply follow this link https://grid-nea.org/category/news/ght2016/ to read a blog report of the 2016 trip written by Jennifer Wilson, one of the team leaders. I will however, shamelessly paste a few sections I think are particularly poignant.

"When we met a young 5 year-old boy with a congenitally small stump for a left leg in our clinic four days ago we felt helpless. Our team had compassion for him and we discussed what could be done to improve his quality of life. A referral was made using our team funds to a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon 10 hours away in Accra where we hoped and prayed a prosthetic limb might be available. We were doubtful. Yesterday, our little lame friend ran into the clinic to greet us with a new prosthesis. This boy, who had never walked on two legs was now running and running and running all over our clinic. He was free. "

"Tuesday was full of firsts as the medical team ran its first clinic in the village of Nyamboi. Doctors had their first cases of severe malaria, tropical ulcers like yaws, and even a scorpion bite. Our dental team dealt with a child who could not open his mouth due to an untreated jaw fracture, while our optometry team had their first cases of trachoma. My daughter Claudia witnessed, for the first time, the appearance of a child near death. "

"Other highlights today included the start of our laser eye clinic to treat glaucoma. Yesterday Dr. Mai identified a patient who was blind and unable to walk unaided from acute glaucoma. After 24 hours on medication and laser surgery today by Dr. Martin, her vision was completely restored and she walked herself out of the clinic. "

"Abraham, who is in charge of this mission and who will be the administrator of the NEA hospital, shared a message which he entitled “Right on Time.” He explained that there would be many sick people that would come to us “right on time,” and that in healing those individuals we would wipe away many tears and restore joy to many communities. You know where this is going … about an hour later an eighteen year-old man arrived with a life-threatening strangulated hernia. Everyone kicked into action: pharmacy had their medications ready to go and that surgical and anaesthesia team saved a life before the theatres were even completely set up. Right on time indeed! I had the privilege of bringing Abraham in to see Dr. Martin and Dr. Kat and our surgical nurses in action — and to see for himself the significance of what he had just shared with us moments prior. "

From Jen's writing, you can see the difference these expeditions make to people's lives. I for one am just happy to be a part of it; you may be pleased and reassured to know I will not be the one to wield the scalpel... however, any money that you can spare will go towards those that are, and let my ensuing pictures that I will post to keep those that donate updated show the impact your money will have.

In the words of a West African proverb, if you wish to move mountains tomorrow, you must start by lifting stones today; let your donations be the stones.

Thank you.