Experienced medic Dr Steve Green - who spent 12 years helping patients in the Congo - is appealing for volunteers to join a Third World task force.

The medical task force is being set up by the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) which supports members in voluntary placements in some of the poorest countries in the world.

Dr Green, of Pudsey - who is consultant paediatrician at St Luke's Hospital, Bradford - is well placed to assemble the task force after spending 12 years in what was formerly Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).

He and his wife Carolyn left for the jungle with their sons, aged six and three, in 1980.

Their decision to quit their comfortable lives in Britain for a more basic lifestyle in the equatorial region of Zaire came after their youngest son, Jonathan, died suddenly of cot death syndrome.

"As a Christian, I felt this was what God was calling us to do, both my wife and I had agreed on that when we first met," said Dr Green.

"It was BMS that sent us to Zaire, we had offered to go anywhere. It was a terrific time - there's amazing satisfaction as a Christian, being where you think God wants you. When things are difficult, knowing that gets you through."

When they arrived Dr Green worked alongside one other doctor in an 80-bed hospital in the middle of the jungle, serving a population of 50,000 people spread over an area the size of Wales.

The family lived in a mud-brick home and were offered food including antelope, monkey and elephant. His exotic caseload included tropical diseases, leprosy, and snake bites.

Dr Green is hoping that other committed Christians will be inspired to use their medical skills in the Third World by volunteering for the programme.

Volunteers would need to be able to take anything from two weeks to three months off to take part in a project and would have to find their own air fare although suitable accommodation would be provided. The pilot project will be an expedition to India this year.

"We are at the initial stages of recruiting and have written to the ministers of all Baptist churches, asking if they have any suitable people in their congregations," Dr Green said.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.