AN Exeter charity fundraiser has returned from a gruelling cycle trip in India raising funds to fight disease, poverty and prejudice.
Barbara Tinsley, 66, a community fundraiser spent two weeks in India on her bike following staff of the international health charity Lepra.
Back home in damp Devon she said: "Lepra's teams in India and Bangladesh brave the flood waters during monsoon months to reach people living in remote areas who are affected by diseases like TB and leprosy.
"The whole experience was very humbling. The people Lepra works with have so little. We met a father and two little girls who have leprosy.
"They live under a tarpaulin. With funding from Lepra they are getting treatment from a local leprosy hospital and the girls will be able to get access to education and go on to lead normal lives."
"As you travel from village to village and town to town you are struck by the poverty. Meeting the people my fundraising is helping and hearing their stories was overwhelming."
Barbara has been visiting local schools to talk about her trip, among them St Michael Church of England School in Heavitree, Exeter, which has raised more than £10,000 for Lepra in recent years.
Each year Lepra reaches more than one million people with lifesaving health information and improves the lives of a further 700,000 people affected by disease poverty and prejudice. For more information on Lepra's overseas bike rides you can visit their website www.lep rahealthinaction.org or contact Lizzie on 01206 216700.
