A MAN who left North Yorkshire for West Africa to assist alleviate the acute scarcity of dentists has been recognised within the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
In 2017, Simon and Grace Stretton-Downes headed to Liberia, a rustic which has solely a handful of certified dentists to deal with a inhabitants of 4.5 million individuals.
Having certified as a dentist 38 years in the past, Mr Stretton-Downes was beforehand at Malpas Home Dental Observe in Northallerton.
Since his transfer he has labored within the Trinity Dental Clinic, a part of ELWA (Excessive Love Wins Africa) in Monrovia, the nation’s capital. As a skilled nurse, Mrs Stretton-Downes works alongside her husband supporting medical workers and sufferers.
Mr Stretton-Downes can also be coaching dentist practitioners to work within the clinic, and repeatedly travels to different hospitals and medical centres within the area.
Though their house is an idyllic location on the fringe of Atlantic Ocean, the couple don’t obtain a wage however depend on voluntary assist from buddies and organisations.
Beforehand the couple had been energetic members of St. Gregory’s Church, Crakehall which additionally helps their work. They’ve beforehand served in Ethiopia for 9 years.
Final week it was introduced that Mr Stretton-Downes was made an OBE within the Queen’s Birthday Honours. When the e-mail arrived a number of weeks in the past, he thought it was a rip-off.
Nevertheless, his spouse had been conscious of the honour for a while and reassured her husband it was real. In some unspecified time in the future the couple will make a well-earned a visit to Buckingham Palace to satisfy the Queen.
The quotation reads: “Dr Simon Stretton-Downes lead dental surgeon, Trinity Dental Clinic, Everlasting Love Profitable Africa (ELWA) Hospital, Liberia. For companies to dentistry in Africa, significantly in Liberia.”
Serving in Mission UK director, Steve Smith stated: “It is a great honour and Simon deserves his OBE for the wonderful work he’s doing in dentistry at ELWA.”
To assist them, or for extra info on the couple’s work go to www.simonandgracestretton-downes–SIM UK/
