A MIDWIFE who took two years out to pass on her skills to trainee Kenyan nurses is hoping to return the favour and bring a party from the African country to Kendal.

Cath Holland, 52, spent two years as a midwifery tutor in a remote part of North West Kenya, and said the experience was "wonderful".

She is now hoping to fund the airfares to bring over three students and a tutor from Kenya.

Ms Holland, who has worked at Kendal's Helme Chase Maternity Unit for ten years, had always wanted to experience working abroad, and when her children had grown up she took the opportunity to travel with Voluntary Service Overseas.

She taught midwifery at a school of nursing in a large mission hospital in West Pokot.

"It was wonderful - just so interesting.

"It was such an opportunity to experience a different lifestyle.

I just feel I was very privileged to have had that experience."

Ms Holland said although hospitals back home were more high-tech than in Kenya, the African hospital where she worked had an operating theatre where emergency Caesareans could be performed.

She found it ironic to return home when the future of Helme Chase was being reviewed, and an option to close the unit was being considered.

Eventually, Caesarean sections were withdrawn at Westmorland General Hospital.

Ms Holland thought it was unfair that while volunteers from Holland, Ireland and England all passed through the Kenyan hospital during her two years, there was little opportunity for anyone from Africa to have the same experience.

"I felt a duty of politeness to invite people back," she said.

"We hope to offer the nurses a glimpse of western-style nursing and midwifery practices, and the opportunity to experience a little of our country and way of life."

Providing the idea gets the go-ahead from health bosses, Ms Holland, from Grange-over-Sands, hopes the visitors could come in September.

She and her colleagues, including midwife Bernadette Clements, would like to raise £2,000, and a coffee morning has already brought in £350.