A pair of Tayside dentistry workers will travel to Greece to help ease the suffering of refugees.
Elaine Kenneth, who runs Fresh inc Medispa in Invergowrie, will fly out to Thessaloniki next month with her colleague Gayle Fagan, a dental therapist at Cherrybank Dental Spa in Perth.
They will visit various camps within a 20 mile radius of the city to offer free basic dental treatment and have set a target of around £500 each in order to fund the charity effort, with close to £300 in the kitty so far.
All funds raised will go through Dental Mavericks, a charity specialising in linking volunteer dentistry workers with those abroad in desperate need of basic dental care.
Elaine says she was first prompted to think about getting involved at around about Christmas time after seeing adverts on TV featuring locally-born Hollywood star Ewan McGregor.
The 43-year-old dental hygienist said: “I started to look into it and watched a video about the charity, Dental Mavericks, who do great work helping refugees.
“It can be very emotional to see people in excruciating dental pain. Things like that are bound to worsen the misery of refugees even more.
“After getting in touch with the charity, I contacted my colleague Gail to see if she wanted to come too as it is quite daunting doing something like this yourself.”
The focus of Elaine’s practice is on medical aesthetics and she added: “I have worked in dentistry for 22 years for both the NHS and privately but having been carrying out aesthetic procedures since opening my own clinic, it will take some adjusting.
“It’s the first time I have ever taken part in a humanitarian effort but it is something I am keen to get involved in.
“I just think that it must be miserable enough as it is so if I can help out and do something to make it even a little more bearable, then why not?”
Gayle, added: “I realised I had a skill that would give these poor people some quality of life. Dealing with what they have to deal with is bad enough but doing that with dental pain and not being able to eat what little food you are provided with makes things ten times harder, I’d imagine.”
A spokesperson for Dental Mavericks said: “It’s unimaginable the journey that these refugees have gone through and so we are very grateful to our volunteers for the work they do.
“It’s getting teams together that is the key to helping out and the response we have had so far has been absolutely fantastic.”
To donate to Elaine and Gayle’s effort, visit:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=ElaineKenneth&isTeam=true
