A WOMAN is packing up her life and leaving home comforts behind in favour of one of the most impoverished corners of the world.

Mel Parslow has sold most of her worldly goods and will let her house in Spennymoor, County Durham, to raise enough money to visit Guatema.

The 32-year-old will join Christian-based charity Food for the Hungry UK.

After three months of training and adapting to the language, she will work with deprived families in remote hillside communities above Nebaj, in the South American Andes.

She said: "I'll be involved in education, child development and strengthening families.

"It is something I have wanted to do for so long, I feel we are all part of the same world and I want to help people who need it most."

Ms Parslow, a social worker at Aycliffe Young People's Centre, enrolled with the charity's family development team after other placements

In Hungary, she worked with drama and singing groups and helped church youth groups in America, but it was three weeks in Albania that ignited her desire to work with impoverished children.