50,000 Miles A Year To Raise £40,000

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31018, 25 March 1966, Page 2

50,000 Miles A Year To Raise £40,000

Sue Ryder, wife of Group Captain Leonard Cheshire, V.C., travels about 50,000 miles each year to raise money and to visit the homes she has established—the Sue Ryder Forgotten Allies Trust Homes.

Mrs Cheshire, who prefers to be known as Sue Ryder, arrived in Christchurch yesterday. She is in New Zealand to meet members of the Ryder-Cheshire Foundation, to thank those who have supported the RyderCheshire Raphael home for lepers in India, and to seek further support and interest in the project.

Although the Raphael home Is primarily for lepers—lndia has three million—it also takes chronically ill people and destitute children who are given a home and education. It is supported by money from England, Australia and New Zealand. About 200 people are housed at present Ultimately the home hopes to cane for 000. Today the Ryder-Cheshire homes number 70 and care for about 3000 people. "This is only a drop,” said Miss Ryder. "There is hardy a country in the world where the chronically ill are cared for. We have 200 to 300 people waiting for each bed.” Sue Ryder started her homes after the Second World War to relieve the plight of displaced persons, of whom there are still about 300,000 in Europe.

She considered it logical and necessary to start her homes in war-devastated countries, whose government were faced with large-scale restoration of civic amenities, schools and hospitals, and who were forced to place the chronically ill and displaced at the bottom of their priority lists. Miss Ryder considers that the need for the homes she and her husband have established will continue indefinitely. The homes aim to give people purpose and motive for living, and a sense of belonging.

“I never feel the work is beyond me,” she said. “Neither of us has any thoughts about giving it up. It is our way of life.” Training Given

All those to their care are trained to some field and make their contribution to creating a normal home atmosphere. Miss Ryder receives little official help and says that raising at least £40,000 a year to maintain the homes is not easy. In England, most of her support comes from oldage pensioners and others who have gone through hardship and suffering. Many of the people to her care are only to their twenties. Many came from concentration camps where, as children, they were subjected to brutal experiments, and now face a life-time of ill health.

“I like to think of this work as a living memorial to the 20 million people who did not survive the war. By helping the disabled wherever we can find them, we perpetuate the memory of those who died,” she said. Last evening Miss Ryder attended the Ryder-Cheshire charity fashion show and new face of the year contest at the Brevet Club.