A North-East 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 cash to reach Guatema.

There the 32-year-old feels she will answer her call in life as a volunteer with Christian-based charity Food for the Hungry UK.

After three months of training and adapting to the language- which includes 40 Spanish dialects- she will work with deprived families in remote hillside communities above Nebaj, in the South American Andes.

She said: "Their ethos is everything I believe in, not just giving food but helping them to support themselves.

"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." Mel, a social worker at Aycliffe Young People's Centre, enrolled with the charity's family development team after other volunteer placements overseas.

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 passion to work with impoverished children.

She said: "I worked with young orphans in a summer camp.

"Everything you said and did for them was huge, they had never felt love before and couldn't understand that people would go a long way just to help them.

"We gave them all a small toiletries bag and had to teach them how to brush their teeth and use shampoo.

"They couldn't bare to put those bags down because it was the first time they'd received a gift."

Friends, family and fellow members of the New Life Church, in Spennymoor, are supporting Mel's move and helped her raise the initial £3,635 needed to fund the trip.

She will need around £300 a month for living costs throughout her stay in Guatemala, to help contact Food for the Hungry on 023 8090 2327 or uk@fhi.net quoting Mel Parslow's name.