On Sunday the 29th April I’ll be taking part in the Stirling marathon, hopefully running the full 26.2 miles from near Stirling Castle, through Doune, Dunblane and back to Stirling. I will be doing this to support St Francis’ Hospital in Zambia

St Francis’ Hospital is situated in a relatively poor rural area of Eastern Province in Zambia. The majority of patients are poor peasant farmers living in traditional villages. The hospital is partly funded by the Zambian Government, but this funding always falls short of demands, and the hospital team are very dependent on donor funding.

The hospital has 360 beds with recognized training schools for enrolled nurses and enrolled midwives. It is a very busy general hospital for an immediate population of 180,000 and it is also a referral hospital for 1.5 million people living in the Eastern Province - an area the size of Scotland. 

The hospital is very much involved in trying to reduce the incidence of HIV and also gives care to those infected. There are 250 trained carer /counsellors in the district and 2000 orphans, who have been taken in by related families and who are assisted by charitable funds, via the hospital, to attend primary school. Money is needed to purchase drugs for infections and cancers related to HIV, and to treat other common and equally important diseases, like malaria, TB, and childhood illnesses. Money is also needed to support the orphan and widows community programmes: this is spent on food, soap, jotters and pens for the orphans who attend school. With a population of 10 million people, Zambia now has 1 million orphans struggling to survive.

Your interest and support is hugely appreciated.

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