Big, big thanks to everyone who came to this year’s Fundraising Walk and/or Dinner – and to all the folks who couldn’t come and donated anyway.
Altogether we raised over £4100!!!
Here are some photos from the day, starting off with a group photo on top of Blencathra….
In July 2025 Cambridge University medical student Dan Lloyd-Davies carried out his medical elective at the health post in Quisuar in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca. Here is Dan’s report of his medical elective experience.
Daniel Lloyd-Davies
At the end of my penultimate year of medical school I was fortunate to organise an elective placement with the help of the LED charity in the village of Quishuar, in Ancash, Peru. I had heard about this small place near the city of Huaraz, by word of mouth from friends who had completed medical electives there in the past and had great experiences.
The Paul De Shasho medical outpost was built and continues to be funded by the LED charity following a previously unmet need and request by the villagers for a medical post. A two hour mountainous drive from the nearest town (and a further nine from Huaraz!), access to healthcare and health education is otherwise difficult for the community who need to spend long days tending their crops and livestock in the mountainous locality.
The journey there was remarkable in of itself. Once I arrived in Huaraz, it was necessary to stay there for a few days and go on some hikes to help acclimatise to the altitude. Huaraz is at 3000m and Quishuar even higher; but this gave the opportunity to take in some of the phenomenal scenery of the Cordilleras Blancas mountains before the further journey. The onwards journey to Quishuar was also one of the most scenic of my life, traversing winding mountain trails and valleys.
The health post is located in the centre of Quishar on land donated by one of the villagers. One permanent nurse, Noemi, works at the health post throughout the year attending to the health of the village residents and also the residents of nearby villages who may walk a long way in order to attend. The primary language of these communities is Quechua, an indigenous language of Peru, but particularly younger people were also fluent in Spanish. I was able to get by with my level of Spanish, but also had the fantastic kind help of Noemi and Juan who helped with translating Quechua and also the more difficult Spanish terms.
Funded charitably, the clinic had a consultation room and a modest stock of basic medicines and equipment. Access to medical investigation equipment was limited mostly to pulse oximetry and blood glucose monitoring. For scans, blood tests, or other further investigations patients would have had to travel a long journey to the nearest town or city. This really encouraged me to rely and trust much more on my clinical history taking and examination skills, which was really valuable personal development for me and my medical training. Some of the more common presentations I saw included H.pylori peptic ulcers, gastro-oesophageal reflux, osteoarthritis, and prostate hypertrophy. Furthermore, a lot of patients came with age- or sun- related visual changes and we were able to give them glasses or sunglasses as required and educate with regards to sun safety and eye health.
In such a special location, there was plenty to do in my spare time. Late each afternoon I would give English lessons for some of the local children at the end of their school day. They were already much better linguists than myself, fluent in both Quechua and Spanish, but seeing them progress their English across the course of my lessons was also really rewarding.
One weekend we walked two hours to a neighbouring village to watch a football tournament between some of the villages of the region. Luckily, Quishuar won their match that day and everyone celebrated with pitchside food and drinks in the sun.
The location also lent itself to a lot of amazing days spent hiking. The altitude made this tougher than hiking back home, but I enjoyed the challenge and it was all worth it for some of the stunning views and trails I got to see. One particular highlight was an early morning hike up one of the corners of the valley to a nesting area for condors, and we were rewarded by being able to see some of these huge birds up close and taking flight.
I would like to thank the LED charity for facilitating this invaluable experience which will stay with me for a long time. Thanks to Val, Juan, Noemi, Melky, and Lola for their support and warmth across my time in Peru.
Thank you Dan all for all your hard work in Quisuar and the surrounding villages. It sounds like you had a really great time! We wish you all the best with your medical career.
Val was back in Nepal from late March to early May, spending time in the Khumbu and Manaslu-Tsum areas which provided the opportunity to review LED projects, to deliver solar lights, medical supplies and school supplies, and to hold eye clinics.
In June, Val heads out to Peru for the summer and will be carrying out LED work in Quishuar and the surrounding valley communities, and meeting the medical students undertaking their medical electives at the health post in Quishuar and Huaraz Hospital.
In Khumbu, Val had the opportunity to visit Thame to see the impact of last August’s Glacial Lake Outburst Floods and the work the community is doing to recover from the disaster.
Thame Flood Relief: Val attended a Thame flood relief meeting with the villagers to discuss their ideas, deciding the main focus would be a water culvert diversion programme to protect the remaining village homes and lodges, some repaired and others rebuilt after the flood last August. LED is helping to fund the construction costs.
Thame School: The school building was destroyed by the flooding. The community has decided to repair and reinforce the former community centre between Thame and Thame Teng, which was previously damaged by earthquakes, so that it can be used as the community school. LED is helping to fund the rebuild through the Himalayan Trust.
Val also delivered LED caps to the schoolkids. The caps were Pat Booth’s suggestion to protect eyes from UV. Thank you to Mingmi and Ang Rita for organising the caps.
Thame Health Post: Val met with the community health worker about rebuilding the health post in Thame, the original having been destroyed by the floods. The likely location will be above Thame. In the meantime the health worker is working out of the community building between Thame and Thame Teng.
In Lukla Val had a meeting with Pasang Dawa, chairman of Himalayan Trust, about the health post and other Thame flood Relief projects.
Solar Lights: Val delivered solar lights to folks who needed replacements following the floods.
Next stop Tsum and Manaslu with the Wonky Wombats from Australia who were trekking with Val and delivering solar lights, medical supplies and school supplies.
Eye Clinics: Eye clinics were held in Nile and Chumling in Tsum and Prok in Manaslu. In Bihi, Val and the Wonky Wombats delivered glasses donated by Pat Booth and the Wonky Wombats to Dr Ruit the famous cataract eye surgeon from Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology who was holding a cataract eye surgery in the area. His team were also teaching local health workers how to test for eye glasses and LED was able to provide eye glasses to his team running the Nubri clinic out of Bihi.
Val was also able to provide sunglasses / eye protection for a team of road workers encountered en route.
Solar Lights: Val and team delivered solar lights and carried out repairs.
Val met with Ang Rita of The Partners of Nepal about the projects LED supports: One Day One Tree and Bung old people’s home. Val and the WWs handed over 2 boxes of medical supplies plus a box of eye glasses and instructions to go to Bung old people’s home.
Big thanks to the Wonky Wombats for all their generous donations, and to pharmacist Chris for the 6 full kit bags of medical supplies.
A big thank you to Mingmi, Tenzi and Daley for all their help on the trips.
Thank you to Dr Kami and Dadoma for all their incredible work and support Thame side.
Welcome to Cambridge uni medics Franco Magjuni and Riyaad Ali, who’ve just arrived in Lima and will be spending a month in Huaraz and Quishuar at the hospital and health post respectively completing their medical elective.
In July fellow Cambridge uni medic Dan Lloyd-Davies will be coming out to spend a month in Huaraz and Quishuar on his medical elective.
Val will be heading out to Peru later this month and visiting the health post and delivering school supplies medical supplies to Quishuar and solar lights to remote families in the valleys around Quishar still without electricity.
Thank you to Melky and Antonia for their ongoing help with the Quishuar health post and Melky’s perseverance in working with the local government on the construction of the replacement Quishuar water supply and to Juan for providing support to the medics while they are in Quishuar.
We’ll be providing ongoing updates via Facebook at Facebook/LEDCharity and donations are always welcome using our JustGiving page justgiving.com/lighteducationdevelopment.
And don’t forget registration is open for our Annual Fundraiser event this September!
If you would like to come to our Annual Fundraiser event this September 6th at Mungrisdale in the Lake District, please complete this online registration form.
There will be updates and more information as we move through the year but the plan is to meet at Mungrisdale Village Hall on the morning of Saturday 6th September and do a walk up, on, across, and around the Northern Fells in the Lake District (several options will be available). This will be followed by tea, coffee and cake on our return, and then an evening of food and relaxation and fun all in the name of raising money to make a difference to the rural and remote mountain communities in Nepal and Peru that many of us have visited, are visiting, or would love to visit.
Some of you may remember that we have been to Mungrisdale Village Hall before – we loved it so much we’re going back!!!
If you would like to come to the walk and the dinner (or just the walk; or just the dinner) please fill out the form and click the submit button at the end.
Payment information is included within the form but if you would like to make a donation or do some additional fundraising then this would be very welcome indeed, in which case then please feel free to go to our JustGiving page or to set up your own JustGiving page and choose to support Light Education Development.
See you in September!
Light Education Development 