NHS Borders for some years has been officially twinned with St Francis Hospital in the remote town of Katete, Zambia. Life is pretty desperate for many Zambians. Nearly 70 per cent of the country lives in poverty. The average life expectancy is only 51 years - HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria are major killers.

The hospital has 360 beds with recognised training schools for enrolled nurses and enrolled midwives. It is a very busy general hospital for an immediate population of 180,000 and it is also a referral hospital for 1.5 million people living in the Eastern Province - an area the size of Scotland.

The hospital suffers greatly from chronic underfunding and a severe shortage of skilled staff. They do a superb job with their limited resources but every little extra that we can support them with is so gratefully received and makes a huge difference to many peoples’ lives.

Fundraising does not all have to be a hard slog! On June 5, the Twinning Group proved that! Eight teams were mustered from staff, relatives and friends. Each donated a small amount for the sheer joy and privilege of taking part in the NHS Borders Annual Softball competition.

What a great night. The sun shone down on the cricket pitch next to Borders General Hospital, Melrose, and favoured the brave when battle commenced! Sandra Henwood’s Basket Ball team emerged the triumphant victors leaving the rest to lick their wounds.

Chris Faldon, who also placed a team “Public Disgrace” and did not disgrace themselves at all, is a member of the Twinning Group was delighted to receive a cheque for £255 to go towards the work of St Francis Hospital.

In receiving the gift, he said: “My sincere thanks to everyone who helped to organise and took part in this fabulous evening. It was great to see everyone getting stuck in, relaxing, enjoying being together and knowing that the monies raised will have a really positive impact on the lives of patients and staff at of St Francis Hospital.” If you would like to know more about the work of the Twinning Group, see the NHS Borders microsite for St Francis Hospital at http://intranet/microsites/index.asp?siteid=480&uid=2 . If you don’t have access to this why not take a look at the JustGiving page set up to provide the hospital with clean water and sanitation https://www.justgiving.com/zambiawater/ Sandra Henwood would like to thank all staff and friends who took part and also Bruce Colvine and Ben Chalmers for umpiring.