Dear Friends,

On Sunday morning I went to Mbingo Baptist Church. It was an infant dedication service - just like back home. The pastor explained clearly that this was not "salvific" (to use his word) and different from infant baptism.

The day before Proffessor Hesseling and I attended a meeting of The North-West Cameroon Parent Organisation (of children with cancer) here at Mbingo - which we helped to establish in May of this year. One parent had travelled around 220 miles, all the way from Mutengene in the South West of the country.  I saw this man in May when he showed to us a prescription for drugs which would have cost about £400.00. At the time his 12-year old daughter had an aggressive muscle cancer (rhabdomyosarcoma) treated in the capital. He'd said "I have nothing left".  He had used all his money (and that sent by a sister in the UK) to pay for his daughter's treatment. Proffessor Hesseling looked at the list of drugs and managed to reduce it to just the essential ones.  He then asked if I was willing to supply these (free of charge) from our Burkitt lymphoma stocks.  Of course I was.

Sadly this man's young daughter later died but this grateful parent travelled all the way north just to thank us.   I still cannot get used to a system in which if you have no money you do not receive medical care.

Isn't our NHS wonderful?

Paul