A YOUNG woman has returned from the slums of India, where she helped the forgotten victims of leprosy.

Sarah Bennett, 24, swapped the green hills of Wolsingham, in Weardale, for the slums of Nagpur, where she spent a month helping her friend, Leah Pattison, tend to women and child leprosy sufferers.

Leah, from nearby Frosterley, has spent several years in India and is working for the charity Start, which aims to set up a leprosy clinic in Nagpur.

About two years ago, she caught the disease herself, but was treated in time.

Sarah went out to visit Leah and another worker, Usha Patel, on a self-funded trip to observe the lepers' existence.

The disease brings stigma with it and many women are rejected by society and unable to get treatment.

Sarah, said: "It was the individuals we helped who made it worthwhile.

"We got some special padded shoes for one patient and she was over the moon."

Sarah found hospitals short of equipment, with doctors having only one syringe each.