Priscilla Bacon Centre nurse and Aylsham GP visit Ethiopia to help dying patients

 A Norfolk hospice nurse and her GP husband have visited Ethiopia to support people dying from HIV Aids and cancer.
Sue Mumford, a community specialist palliative care nurse at the Priscilla Bacon Centre, in Norwich, and Dr Jamie Mumford, from The Market Surgery, Aylsham, recently spent five days in the capital city, Addis Ababa.

The trip was part of the Priscilla Bacon’s twinning arrangements with charitable organisation, Hospice Ethiopia.
The Mumfords took drugs and other supplies with them bought with sponsorship money raised by Priscilla Bacon staff who have pledged to walk, run, swim, and cycle the equivalent of the 3,663 miles between Norwich and Addis Ababa. So far they have raised more than £5,000.
Mrs Mumford said they had met hospice inpatients, including a woman with breast cancer who had been screaming in pain when she was first admitted.
She added: “Her pain had been well-controlled by the nurses at Hospice Ethiopia, but she was awaiting palliative x-ray treatment. We were told that there are only two suitable x-ray units in the whole country, leading to a six-month waiting time for palliative radiotherapy.”

The couple also took part in home visits, including a trip to see a patient with bowel cancer who was being looked after by her daughter, who had given up her education to become a carer.
Dr Mumford said: “The patient’s symptoms were being controlled though oral morphine, but she remained weak. We heard how the family had been economically affected too, as the mother had previously been the breadwinner.”
Mrs Mumford’s visit was partly funded by the Priscilla Bacon Lodge Support Group, which matched funding from the British Council which supported visits earlier this year. Dr Mumford paid for himself