A BEAUTY therapist is preparing to travel to the Philippines to carry out voluntary work with children.

Rachael Jackson, 18, who lives in Barnard Castle, has been accepted by the International Teams organisation to spend a year doing unpaid voluntary work.

She will be based in Luton for the first six months, working with children, taking religious education lessons, helping at after-school clubs and telling the youngsters about her faith.

She will then transfer to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, where she will be involved in similar work.

Rachael, who has just finished her studies in beauty therapy at Bishop Auckland College, spent part of her summer holidays last year doing charitable work in Thailand for the Crusaders Christian organisation.

She stayed with a family in the village of Kalasin, and remains in close contact with the villages she worked with.

The aim of the trip was to spread the Christian message in a Buddhist country.

Rachael feels her previous experiences, where meal-times sometimes consisted of fried cockroaches, maggots and grasshoppers, will stand her in good stead for her adventure.

She had to raise £2,600 for the trip, which came from fundraising events and the help of her family, friends and her church.