A BOLTON woman who became the first Western physiotherapist to enter Albania when it emerged from the reclusive confines of communism has turned author to help the country.

Kit Evered has written of her visits and work in "Albania, Secret Country. A Physiotherapist's Tale".

All proceeds from sales will go to the charity Feed the Children, who arranged her first mission, and to the physiotherapy department in Tirana.

Kit has been visiting Albania for three years and has grown to love the rugged country, discovering that: "An Albanian friend is a friend for life." And in the Bolton woman, Albania, too, has found a friend for life.

Kit was born in Bolton and spent much of her childhood here. Her grandfather was a local accountant and was also the first company secretary of Bolton's Acdo firm.

Her mother, Joyce Lings, was a dance teacher with her partner, Margot Nichols, who still lives in Horwich.

The author, who now lives in Surrey, dedicated her book to her father, John Massey Lings, a Manchester cotton industry man who died on active service at Anzio, Italy, in 1944. She told the BEN: "I am proud of my Lancashire roots", and her book is a tribute to the "northern grit" which she credits with seeing her through.

In a foreword to the book, Earl Jellicoe describes the author as "a highly trained and highly intelligent person" who gives an all-too-modest account of her work which brought new life and hope to many Albanian children.

The physiotherapist felt she had to do something when the first pictures of the stricken children of Albania appeared here in 1991. Se sent along a donation to the Feed the Children charity - and an offer of help. Both were accepted and, before long, Kit and a Scottish GP, Alan Humphrey, were among the people who struggled for food, fuel and any kind of attention. Hospitals were windowless, the Chinese and Russian equipment broken or outdated.

Undernourished babies lay, four to a cot, on the brink of death. At one point she was robbed of her money, papers and passport.

But she saved her tears for the mentally handicapped children who had to survive without love and without hope. After her return to Britain, Kit raised cash by giving talks and showing slides, and bought equipment.

Largely through her lobbying of her MP, today there is an attache in Tirana to help other British aid workers who hit difficulties.

A second visit, with vital equipment, showed that Kit was working in the right direction, and subsequent visits have given rise to more fund raising, more effort, also to many friendships. She found that some Albanians had learned English by risking imprisonment under the repressive regime by listening to the BBC World Service.

Kit ran clinics, visited children's homes and families in remote regions, did dance work among psychiatric patients and absorbed much of Albania's spirit, laughing and crying with the people as they faced the monumental task of helping their own weak and vulnerable.

After what Kit describes as "50 years of the harshest suppression in Eastern Europe", the Albanians are now taking the opportunities offered them. Tirana itself appears "quite prosperous", but the money is not filtering through to those who need it most.

The Bolton-born physio's book is just 64 pages of her personal experiences in the rugged land she has come to love, but is also a testimony to the loyalty and commitment the people of Albania have inspired in her.

Published by Kit herself, the book can be obtained from Alisons' Book Shop in St Andrew's Court.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.