Disabled woman’s charity is her ‘legacy’

By The Newsroom
Published 16th Apr 2014, 07:00 BST
WH 040414 Anya Deakin set up a charity to help a school in Gambia. Photo by Derek Martin SUS-140404-185440001WH 040414 Anya Deakin set up a charity to help a school in Gambia. Photo by Derek Martin SUS-140404-185440001
WH 040414 Anya Deakin set up a charity to help a school in Gambia. Photo by Derek Martin SUS-140404-185440001
A DISABLED woman who ‘stumbled upon’ a Gambian school while on a soul searching trip following a hysterectomy which went wrong has set up a charity to help it.

Nathanya Deakin, known as Anya, 42, of Avendale Close, Goring, made the trip in December, after a rare complication to the operation left her struggling to walk.

Unable to work, she has now set up Anya’s Wish, to help fund the community school.

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She said: “The trip was just to work out what I was going to do with my life because I am young and can’t carry on working.

“I have got a degree and I was feeling lost as I wasn’t going to be a midwife any more, but I didn’t expect to come back and set up a charity.

“It was a bit of soul searching. This for me now is my life and legacy.”

The school was set up by the community for children whose families cannot afford to pay for their education.