A BURNESIDE student has returned from India with a new outlook on life after spending 10 weeks living without electricity and running water.

Lana Johnson, 19, an art student at Leeds College, was picked for the Government’s Platform2 scheme and lived in a camp with other volunteers as she taught young people about global issues and to speak English.

She said: “It made me think about my time at university.

"I thought I was here to build a career but now I want to help people and I have realised that money doesn’t mean everything.

“In India the people had nothing but they had everything in their family, friends and food – it is such a massive contrast to our society.”

Lana, who attended Queen Katherine School and Kendal College, spent her mornings teaching English before assisting with construction work in the afternoons.

At night, slept under a mosquito net in the open at Rajasthan in the Thar desert.

She added: “I grew up in Burneside and people the same age as me will live there their whole life without realising there is a wider world out there.

"I want to show people through my videos and blogs what life is like for people over there.”