I’m Lucy and I’m fully qualified Dental Nurse and the Practice Coordinator at Bupa Dental Care Colchester Ipswich Road, I recently applied for a place and was luckily chosen by Bupa Dental Care to undertake a 2 week voluntary placement working alongside Bridge2Aid in Tanzania with a team of volunteer Dentists and Dental Nurses.

Part of this volunteering involves me fundraising £1000 before my 2 week placement in October 2019.

We will be working 10 days and very long hours to help treat patients that have never seen a dentist and some will be in excruciating pain and walked miles to be able to be seen by the volunteer dental team. We will be treating hundreds of patients a day in make shift dental clinics, not like what you experience in your dentist in the UK with all the technical equipment, computers and chair.

The training programme consists of training local health workers to diagnose dental conditions, administer local anaesthetic, extract teeth, deliver basic oral health prevention and identify other oral problems.

Most of us have suffered from toothache at some point in our lives. It can be debilitating, constant, and excruciating. It is something we would immediately look to address by reaching for pain relief or booking an urgent visit to the dentist. But for many people, this is not possible; over 70% of the world’s population does not have access to a dentist.

I would be extremely grateful for any donations to help Bridge2Aid to continue the wonderful charity work that they and their volunteers do.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.