A FORMER Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School pupil is raising money for a trip to Honduras, where she will spend a fortnight looking after the health needs of villagers.
Flora Cust, who is studying medicine at Derby and Nottingham, will fly out in May to join a project that helps provides health care to one of the poorest communities in the area.
The former deputy head girl, whose father is a surgeon, has already completed a geography degree moving on to a four year medicine course and she is now in her final year.
Miss Cust will be joining project leaders from the Global Medical Brigade, which invites more than 3,000 student volunteers and health professionals every year to travel travel out and establish mobile clinics in under-resourced communities.
She said: “Sixty per cent of Hondurans live below the poverty line and medical access is very restricted.
“I am aiming to raise money to help provide the camps and equipment as well as drugs to be used.
“We will work in close contact with local doctors and nurses, looking at a variety of areas of adult and child health requirements and referring into city hospitals where necessary.
“Honduras is a very poor country relying heavily on aid and projects such as this to reach the rural areas, and promote health and hygiene in an attempt to reduce HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB and dengue fever.
“I have seen first-hand the amazing impact these projects have having been to Nepal twice on medical aid projects in the Himalayan foothills with INF charity, but have never been in a medical capacity.
“I graduate in 2014 as a doctor and this is a fantastic opportunity for me to learn first-hand how to provide sustainable healthcare that has a lasting impact, and help me become a more rounded doctor”
(glyph) Miss Cust will be running a cake stall as part of her fund-raising activities in Ashbourne at the town hall on Saturday, from 10am until around 3pm.
To find out more about the project, or help with a donation, visit www.empowered.org/floracust or call 07792 476381.
