Charity is doctor's healthy obsession - Old Joe Magazine

Matthew Clark has been interviewed by Old Joe, the University of Birmingham's Alumni magazine. He discusses founding the Welbodi Partnership, and the problems he had to face and the achievements of the charity so far.

Alumnus of the Year Matthew Clark was still a student when he founded a charity that has raised more than £1 million to transform an African children's hospital.

When Matthew Clark (BSc Sport and Exercise Sciences, 2002) arrived at the Ola During Children's Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on an elective placement as part of his medical degree, he was unprepared for what he would find. The civil war had ended five years earlier but there was no running water, sporadic electricity and a lack of essential medical equipment.

In a country with the worst infant mortality rate in the world (one in four children dies before the age of five) it was vital something was done. Many of the facilities needed were in place but had not been completed during a post-war refurbishment.

Read the full article here.