CARING Claire Green is leading a drive to change the lives of hundreds of Indian children.

For the former nurse is behind efforts to send a team of medical experts to the impoverished nation where they will operate on youngsters born with cleft palates.

Mrs Green, aged 48, of Edgworth, has organised a series of events to raise funds to help send a team of 25 anaesthetists, doctors, surgeons and nurses to Nagpur in India to carry out their work later this month.

They are part of the Northern Cleft Foundation, which was set up eight years ago and has since then operated on more than 500 people, mostly children. Mrs Green, now a lawyer, is unable to go on the trip but that hasn’t stopped her fundraising hard all year.

The most recent fundraiser was a night of entertainment headed by cabaret act Stefano, at Edgworth’s Barlow Institute, which raised £1,500.

The event w a s organised by Mrs Green, who has been w o r k i n g with the charity for five years, as a memorial evening for her brother in law, Dr Richard Horne.

He was an anaesthetist and worked with the charity before he died of cancer.

Mrs Green, of Moorside Road, said: “Last year we were there for one week and we did 107 operations. It’s very worthwhile, I can’t explain how much it can change children’s lives. And you get to see the results.

“We operated on a girl called Baba when she was six months old and when we went back last year, we got to see her again, which was brilliant.”

Each operation costs around £100 but because of financial constraints in India, children often get left without it.

Mrs Green said cleft palates can leave babies unable to suckle, putting them at risk of death.

Children who are born with cleft palates in India can be neglected by their families and are often poorly educated because they avoid going to school.

à If you would like to donate to the charity, contact Mrs Green on 01204 852225, or visit the website at northerncleft foundation.co.uk