National competition winner

Blackpool & the Fylde Circle were very pleased to be asked to host the awarding of a national Bursary Fund photographic competition after their recent meeting.  Medical student Cindy Rodrigues Cleto of Ilford, Essex, at present on a placement at Blackpool Victoria Hospital as part of a five-year course at Liverpool University to become a cardiac thoracic surgeon, won the competition.  It was open to those who had received bursary grants last year. Cindy had submitted a photograph taken whist doing voluntary work in Tanzania. Tony Charnock, Secretary of the Bursary Fund, said that Cindy’s photograph was selected as the winner because it conveys how much voluntary service means to those it intends to help. The smiling faces of the children surrounding Cindy were from the orphanage next door to the dispensary to which she had been assigned.

The winning photograph

L to r: Bro. Tony Charnock, Bro. President Lawrence Turner, Cindy Cleto, Bro. Provincial President Robert Thompson, Bro. Terence Donnelly (Vice-chair of the Bursary Fund)

Before setting out for Tanzania Cindy raised money through her home parish in Liverpool. She completed an arduous walk up Mount Kilimanjaro that took five days to reach the summit raising sufficient funds to buy medical equipment, a new playground for the school and the supply of a nurse and two doctors to provide some free health care.

Whilst in Tanzania Cindy was a volunteer hospital worker and also assisted with some outreach activities with Arise School focused on Christian primary education.  Since returning home she has raised £800 to support the vital surgery needed for an operation to correct a congenital problem of a two-year old infant whose mother had been told by the doctors that there was nothing that they could do.  The operation is planned for 18 January.

Tony Charnock was keen to emphasise that the Bursary Fund is there for young Catholics to help others. Each year the Bursary Fund makes awards of over £100,000 to young Catholics aged between 16 and 24 who volunteer to work on projects overseas and as helpers on diocesan pilgrimages and HCPT.