A RETIRED former consultant anaesthetist for Basingstoke hospital has been helping people on an entirely different continent.

Dr Keith Thomson has been helping two young people from the Democratic Republic of the Congo travel to Uganda to have life-changing operations.

Dr Thomson has been involved with the charity Mercy Ships since 1991. The organisation provides free surgery for poor people in Africa on board an especially equipped hospital ship called the Africa Mercy.

During a visit to the Mercy Ship in Douala, Cameroon in April of this year, Dr Thomson was challenged by his friend maxillofacial surgeon Dr Gary Parker to find a suitable hospital to treat two young Congolese people, Sarah Lemba, 23, and Hugues Lilonga, 27.

They were both suffering from a benign, non-cancerous disfiguring tumour of their jaw, known as ameloblastoma. The ship was not going to Congo and Guinea where it is now would not allow surgery for other nationals.

Dr Thomson said: “This condition is a disease of poverty in Africa which should have been treated when it was just pea sized lump.

“Out of all the 83 million people in the Congo, not one of them is qualified to do the surgery, so that they have to go to Uganda to get the operation done.”

The surgery required to return their faces to normal involved a ten-hour operation to remove the tumour and then reconstruct the jawbone with a fibula (a small bone from below the knee) and was led by Dr George Galiwango.

The pair had their operations last week, and are now recovering well.

Dr Thomson organised, with the help of Mrs Josee Wilkinson from Solihull who knew Sarah, for the pair to fly to Entebbe, Uganda’s main airport near the capital Kampala. Obtaining passports, visas and getting them on the flight provided many challenges.

Dr Thomson added: “So far it has all gone very smoothly, which is remarkable.”

A previous Ugandan patient, called Specioza Tusiime, who recovered from the same condition, had been referred to Corsu Hospital in 2014 by Dr Thomson.

Dr Thomson said: “She volunteered to be Hugues’ attendant and was really helpful. Hugues called her ‘his angel.’ She was fantastic.”

Specioza now runs Dr Thomson’s personal small charity venture in Uganda, Starfish Enterprize, which has helped more than 30 people from the Hoima area have facial surgery at the same hospital, (Corsu hospital) since February 2016.

Dr Thomson is a trustee of Mercy Ships UK, and has been involved with Mercy Ships for 28 years working as a volunteer anaesthetist for 2-3 weeks on board on 24 different occasions prior to his retirement in May 2014.

Anyone interested following their progress or helping to fund Sarah and Hugues treatment can contact Dr Thomson on the e-mail address: keiththegas@yahoo.co.uk.