Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

This year's challenge for the Ancients Walking Group is to walk 100km along and around the banks of the Nantes to Brest canal between Ile aux Pies and Malestroit. Once again, they are raising funds for the work of Hospice Africa France.

This year, the funds will go towards HAF's work in Benin where local healthcare workers, trained over the years by HAF, are about to establish a centre of excellence in palliative care in French-speaking Africa.

We were reminded of the importance of this work when we received a letter from Dr Moumouni Ayouba, a Beninese doctor who has just completed the palliative care course. He describes how the course has given him a better understanding of the care given to people at the end of life, and the need for compassion and consideration of the whole person.

He describes how his own brother was diagnosed with liver cancer and the difficult issues he faced. The care his brother received in the last weeks of his life was made much more bearable thanks to Dr Ayouba's recent training. He ends his letter with a profound observation: "The best compassion for a patient is competence.

It is this gift that our funding helps to provide.