News / Reports & Updates

Message From the Project Manager in Scotland
My name is Allan Burns, Project Manager for the IRPS in Scotland. I raise funds for the reconstructive plastic surgery in Ghana and for medical research in Scotland.

My background. An initial teaching career in East African was followed by 20 years as a mining and exploration geologist in Europe and Africa before becoming a fundraiser.

My career changed soon after my first daughter was born with cerebral palsy. My wife and I took her to a centre in London many times over the next few years for specialist treatment from which we all received tremendous benefit. We decided that as many other disabled children and young adults as possible should receive the benefits of Bobath Therapy so set about raising the money to establish such a centre in Scotland. The centre opened in 1995.

I subsequently met Plastic Surgeons who work in Glasgow and began raising funds for their research and overseas projects.

In November 2001 I was privileged to visit and observe at first hand the Ghana plastic surgery project in action. I'd never witnessed surgical operations before but spent up to 12 hours daily photographing and observing the type of work performed there. It was actually much easier watching the surgeons at work than I had anticipated. My fear of passing out under the operating table proved unfounded as I was soon engrossed watching the surgeons skilfully remove disease and defects and rebuild bodies, hope and new lives for people.

The first operation I observed was a 5-hour removal of a huge cancerous tumour on a woman’s face and neck. The damaged areas were reconstructed using skin and flesh removed from her breast. The outstanding moments of this operation are shown in Parotid Tumour Surgery.

The most frequent reconstructive plastic surgery I saw on this and subsequent trips were operations on children with cleft lips and palates, children with burns and teenagers with the horrid flesh-destroying Buruli ulcer. However the surgeons treat a vast range of conditions in people of all ages including an 80 year-old man having the ulcerated sole of his foot removed then reconstructed that I observed.

It was disconcerting to meet amongst many badly burned children, a child aged 2 whose chances of survival were limited, not by the extent of her injuries, but because her family couldn't afford to purchase the necessary drugs in hospital. I found this quite difficult to comprehend but although our charity was able to pay for that little girl's medication unhappily she didn't survive.

Such incidents vividly brought home to me the gulf that exists between the Developing World and the West.

I was enthused by the great work being done by the Ghanaian plastic surgeons and the expatriate consultants and anaesthetists who operate there freely for short periods but I returned home aware that a great amount of help still requires to be provided. I redoubled efforts to obtain funds to train Ghanaian medics in plastic surgery and to obtain as much medical equipment as possible to ship out.

(Since first writing this message, 5 container loads of equipment have been shipped, funding to train 3 consultants in Scotland has been raised and more than 12 specialist training parties have visited Ghana)

Thanks for reading this message and any comments, questions, suggestions or ideas to improve the work we are doing would be most welcome.

Allan R Burns 17 Jan 2002 (updated 10 May 2005)