Rama Foundation

We are very excited to introduce Charly Gilchrist, volunteering for Rama Foundation in 2024 - 25.

Charly is a Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist with over nine years of experience working in the NHS. She has worked in a range of areas including major trauma, acute stroke, community teams and the general acute wards. Currently working in Critical Care at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Charly specialises in the management of complex communication and swallowing impairments and tracheostomy weaning.

A week’s visit to the beautiful Rishikesh in North eastern India at the foothills of the Himalayas was so much more of an enlightening experience than I expected. What in incredible week, I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to visit the area and experience the culture. So many of the people in this region have so little yet are still smiling and grateful.

As I mentioned in my pre-trip blog (https://ramafoundation.org.uk/node/51), I was the first physio to join the Rama Foundation on their yearly visits to Rishikesh, India and so I was going with no prior knowledge or expectations about what the trip might look like for me. Paula, Rachel and I were lucky enough to fly to India a week before the volunteering started in order to get a glimpse of India.

It has now been a number of weeks since I have returned from India, and it truly was a once in a lifetime experience. Paula, Lucy and I spent the first week travelling and we got to see some amazing cities including, Jaipur, New Dehli, and Agra, finishing our tour at the breath-taking Taj Mahal. This was a great start to our trip as it allowed us to immerse ourselves into Indias culture, including the amazing food, the humid weather, the busy streets with no traffic rules but most of all it gave us some exposure to the kind, and welcoming nature of Indian people.

My time as a volunteer of Rama Foundation is one I will never forget and will be forever grateful for. This opportunity to pass on any skills of benefit to the staff of Ganga Prem Hospice was something to cherish as a health care professional.

By Artika Datta, Trustee Rama Foundation, Advanced Specialist Dietitian

I have returned from this most recent Rama Foundation (RF) volunteering trip in India with immense satisfaction, gratitude, and pride. It was thrilling to work with really committed and enthusiastic colleagues - our pre-trip meetings really helped us to establish a strong sense of teamworking to work towards a great purpose.

By: Lucy Hughes - Stanton, Physiotherapist, Cambridge University Hospitals

I am currently working at Addenbrookes hospital as a rotational Band 6 Respiratory Physiotherapist. I have been working at CUH for the past 2 years and prior to this I have worked in South Wales, Dublin and Guildford. Outside of work I have a huge interest in travelling, baking, cooking and keeping fit and active.

Author: Rachael Mullan, Specialist Oncology Dietitian, Cambridge University Hospitals

By: Artika Datta, Trustee Rama Foundation, Advanced Specialist Dietitian

The American cultural anthropologist, Margaret Mead, famously said 'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has'. This is precisely the spirit with which I will participate in Rama Foundation's forthcoming volunteering trip to India in July 2023.

By Paula McCusker, Specialist Hepatology Dietitian, Cambridge University Hospitals

I have been working at Addenbrookes Hospital for nearly 2 years. I studied an undergraduate degree in Dietetics in Northern Ireland before moving to Cambridge as a band 5 dietitian and eventually moving in to the role of a Hepatology and Liver Transplant Dietitian.