NURSE Mandy Belshaw had a roaring time during a welfare mission to South America.

For the 25-year-old was responsible for the health care of 300 people whose conditions ranged from sun blindness to...a lion bite!

Mandy, of Chapel Green Road, Hindley, travelled to Guayaquil in Ecuador as part of an 18 month Mission by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

She travelled to Ecuador via the Missionary training Centre in Provo, Utah, where she spent two months preparing and learning Spanish.

Her work included dealing with everything from simple scratches and bruises to tropical diseases, dog bites, the lion bite and sun blindness. It also included three appendix operations in just two weeks.

She was on call for 24 hours a day and also spent time carrying out welfare work and evangelising.

Welfare work included eight courses covering basic first aid, disease prevention, home care and child care.

Mandy said: "Every day we always had hot soup and rice - the staple diet in Guayaquil - even if the temperature was 40 degrees centigrade. "There were some interesting challenges though, like the day when I was served guinea pig.

"It was all a great experience."

Mandy, a Registered General Nurse, is now looking to put her experiences to good use: "My desire is to become a district nurse working in the community, but this is difficult as there are not many places that do this training. I need a health authority to sponsor me for the course and this is hard to find."

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