How lovely to see you again
CHARITY worker Dee Symons had an unexpected but welcome surprise during her latest trip to Africa.
She was visiting Marakissa Methodist Lower Basic School in The Gambia when she met teacher Louis Gomez – a man she cared for a decade ago when he was struck down with malaria.
Since then she had lost touch and long presumed him dead, a victim of his injuries and the illness that claims so many in the country.
Dee, a retired physiotherapist, is in The Gambia on her 100th visit with the Open Hands Gambia charity she runs from her home in Fareham.
She first met Louis when she was helping to run the clinic next to the school in the village of Marakissa, where the school is, and he was crippled with broken bones and spinal injuries.
She said: 'When he first came to me it was with one crutch and on his elbow and knee. We don't know what really happened – Louis said it was a fall, but we have heard differently from others, and he doesn't want to talk about it.'
At the time, Dee was spending three months in The Gambia and returning home for one month.
'He was coming to me every day I was here for about three years and I was really pummelling him with the physio but he never once complained,' the 67-year-old added.
Louis has now been a teacher at the school for three years and is walking well, albeit with the aid of a crutch.
The softly-spoken 28-year-old said: 'I am very, very happy to see her again. I didn't know she was coming.
'She was so kind to me and everyone else. She gave me a lot of things.'
After the emotional reunion, Dee said: 'I was so shocked it took a while to sink in. I'm thrilled to bits to see him.
'After I last saw him I assumed no-one would keep up his treatment. He must have kept doing his exercises by himself.
'When we heard there was a bad bout of malaria a few years back in the village and 14 died, we thought he was one of them.
'It's so difficult to keep in touch with everyone I've met over the years, and you do lose people along the way, but I'm not going to lose him again.'
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Friday 25 May 2012
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