PCM News: Limpopo Dental and Womem's Health

11 June 2021

Limpopo Dental and Womem's Health

The week after we got back from Mozambique, we were off again to the Vhembe district in the Limpopo province for a few days with a larger than normal Flying for Life medical team.

Vhembe (red) in Limpopo (yellow)

On this outreach we also took one of our helicopters to enable the team to get to more clinics in the time available.

The team included Cathy and Corianne who dealt with women’s health issues...

..as well as a couple of dentists, a GP and a number of other support personnel - such as a fixed wing and helicopter pilot!

In total they saw 63 dental patients, 72 screened for women's health and 45 general medical consultations by the GP.

Paul went with the dental team.

Flying in to Tshipise...

..where we landed on the local football pitch...

From where the clinic was only a short walk away.

Quite a number of patients were already waiting for us.

The dental assistant gave some practical tooth-brushing advice to a crowd of locals.

At another clinic a 17-year-old girl’s life was saved. She came in for medical care complaining of fatigue. The GP, who was actually a cardiac specialist, diagnosed her with rheumatic heart disease and heart failure and she was referred to the hospital for an urgent heart-valve replacement.

Thank you

Paul and Cathy

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A short history of us

Not long after we were married we felt that God had some full time work for us overseas. This initially began with a move to Sheffield in 1992 to work for a Christian management training company. Three years later we felt the Lord's prompting that another change was imminent and this led to a move to Africa where we helped set up a youth program with the Lesotho-Durham link in the capital Maseru. An initial three year commitment turned into four after which the youth work was handed over to the nationals.

Then, after feeling God was moving us into mission flying Paul enrolled at a flying school and completed his South African commercial license with an instrument rating in December 1999.

We moved from Lesotho to White River in South Africa in June of 2003 where we now work with Mercy Air. Mercy Air was borne out of Youth with a Mission (YWAM) and is a sister, although smaller organisation to the more well known Mercy Ships. We are situated near Nelspruit and provide a service to missions and the development/aid community in the southern African region but mainly serve Mozambique.

We operate four aircraft at present - a Quest Kodiak, a Cessna 310 and two Airbus 350 helicopters which are often used for the relief flights.

When not flying Paul is responsible for flight operations and is Mercy Air's Safety Officer.

Cathy, who is a registered Nurse and Midwife works part time at Africa School of Missions which is a bible college preparing missionaries for overseas service. She teaches in their School of Health and is part of a team which visits a number of rural clinics during the week. She is also helps with the hospitality ministry that Mercy Air runs.

Matthew spent four years at Rhodes University in Grahamstown where he studied photo journalism. He has now flown the nest and is living with his wife in Durban. They have a young daughter named Isabella.