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Clubs and Societies<br />
AMREF Group<br />
Flying Doctors<br />
It is always encouraging for the <strong>College</strong> to learn about the activities of Amref<br />
Health Africa, and the sheer variety of its humanitarian work can be seen in the<br />
many different projects we at Wolfson have supported over the years. An important<br />
subsidiary is the Nairobi-based African Flying Doctors service which, among other<br />
tasks, provides for the emergency evacuation of urgent medical cases from all over<br />
East and Central Africa to hospitals in Nairobi and elsewhere.<br />
The value of this service has recently been dramatically brought home to the Group.<br />
Last year Mwangala Lethbridge, the Zambian daughter-in-law of one of our longestserving<br />
members, Christopher Lethbridge, was seriously hurt in a traffic accident in<br />
Lusaka. Her multiple injuries were life-threatening, and it was immediately clear that<br />
she needed to be evacuated to Nairobi, and thence to the UK, if doctors were to save<br />
her life. A call was made to the Flying Doctors service, which immediately provided<br />
a special air ambulance. This flew Mwangala, accompanied by trained medical staff,<br />
to Nairobi, and from there she reached London by a commercial flight. Her condition<br />
was stabilised at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, but despite every effort by<br />
the surgeons, her right leg had to be amputated.<br />
At the time of writing Mwangala is making good progress, and she has nothing but<br />
the highest praise for the wonderful work done by Amref: ‘The swift and professional<br />
support I received from everyone at Amref undoubtedly saved my life. Now my<br />
ambition is to recover my mobility sufficiently to enter the London Marathon to<br />
raise money for Amref!’ The Group wishes her a speedy and full recovery, and looks<br />
forward to supporting her in the London Marathon.<br />
The Group liaises closely with Amref UK, and we have asked the Trusts and<br />
Foundations Officer at the London HQ, to give us a first hand account of working<br />
with, and for, Amref.<br />
Steph Mooney writes:<br />
‘Since joining Amref Health Africa last year I’ve had the opportunity to see our<br />
work close up, and meet many of our generous supporters who make it happen.<br />
Last summer I travelled to Kenya to visit a maternal health project in Makueni<br />
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