A VOLUNTEER therapist has returned from Romania devastated by the plight of abandoned children there and full of praise for a Titton "miracle worker".
Kidderminster mother-of-three Rebecca Parker, who practises remedial muscle massage in Stourport, joined a team working to establish an eye care clinic for the Sunshine Appeal trust in memory of road accident victim Sarah Hampton.
Sarah's father Mike Hampton, of Titton, owns an opticians business and has set up the clinic at the Camimul Felix orphanage following the death of his 20-year-old daughter in May.
Mrs Parker, who helped to install gym equipment in a nearby city hospital housing abandoned children in Oradea, said: "Mike Hampton is working miracles there and the opticians helping him have been wonderful.
"When they took me to the hospital I could not believe my eyes.
"Eighty per cent of this huge hospital with 493 in-patients was taken up with these poor children just abandoned there.
"They only get two nappy changes a day and they have no physical activity. It was terrible and I cry when I tell people about it. If it were not for my own children I would not have come back. I could not believe it seeing little children with their legs tied to cot bars to stop them getting out.
"They get severe muscle wastage and disability. I am going back next year to help again and I know I shall find some have died and others who will badly need therapy even though there is nothing wrong with them now."
She praised the generosity of people in Wyre Forest who have donated gym equipment which she used to help train some nurses at the hospital who were keen to help the children.
The trust has also spent more than £13,000 on eye-testing equipment financed by an appeal that has so far raised about £7,000.
In the latest seven-day visit which also included Sarah's sister Rebecca for the first time, the team finished installing eye equipment and continued the work it started earlier this year testing the eyes of children and the elderly and supplying desperately needed spectacles.
The project is designed to encourage opticians from all over the world to volunteer for work sessions in the area.
Further information on fund-raising, on the work of the trust and on collecting centres for gifts, including gym equipment, is available from the Crown Eye Care Centre, Crown Close, Bromsgrove on 01527 577350.
l A lorry-load of toys and gifts will leave Kidderminster for Romania in the New Year.
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