I'm heading off to Tanzania in the new year on a medical elective. I will be based at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in the general internal medicine department for 2 months. After completing my time there I have decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of the Friends of KCMC.

KCMC is one of the largest hospitals in Tanzania but yet - by UK standards is considered small. It serves approximately 11 million people - that is about a quarter of Tanzania's population. Not only does the hospital deal with the day-to-day disease we see in this country but also a vast host of infectious and tropical diseases common to equatorial Africa.

The Friends of KCMC help to provide funding for the hospital as well as financial support for their own students. I believe that this work is fundamentally important to the development of healthcare services not only in Tanzania but also throughout the whole of the continent.