A FORMER North-East GP who cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats to help his patients in a remote part of Africa has raised the money he needs to buy them an ambulance.

Dr Paul Williams, who used to work as GP in Stockton, completed the trip last summer for the Bwindi Community Hospital, in Uganda.

Dr Williams has worked at the Ugandan hospital for more than three years.

The Bwindi hospital medics and nurses help about 1,000 HIVpositive villagers.

But their work was hampered because they did not have a modern four-wheel-drive ambulance that could reach all the villages in the area.

So Dr Williams and his colleagues set out to raise £26,000 for the vehicle, and this month, the HIV outreach team began using a new Toyota Landcruiser ambulance.

Dr Williams said: “With this new ambulance, we can give care to people living with HIV in remote areas – people who are too poor and too weak to get to the hospital.

“The exposure we had in The Northern Echo made a big difference and helped raise more than £10,000 from people in the North- East.”

Bwindi Community Hospital is the only healthcare facility for about 35,000 people.

Its staff have now tested 17,000 members of the local community for HIV.

People who test positive for HIV are given free drugs, counselling and education about living with HIV.

Midwife Ninseema Evelyn said: “Thank-you to all the people who have given us donations for this ambulance.”

North-East charity Everyday Language Solutions, in Thornaby, near Stockton, contributed £3,000.