Worchester, UK - A kind-hearted Worcester woman is asking for support from local businesses and people to send special equipment to disabled children and adults in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Laura Brown, an NHS physiotherapist, has been carrying out voluntary work in Puerto Vallarta to help improve the mobility of disabled people and enable them to access health care they would not otherwise be able to afford.

Following an initial three month self-funded trip in 2009, Miss Brown was inspired to set up her own independent project called Therapies Unite.

She returned to Puerto Vallarta in December last year and is currently working with individuals and communities to provide free specialist therapeutic skills and expertise.

One of the 29-year-old’s biggest success stories to date, and one which featured on Mexican television, was to acquire callipers for Usiel – a young Mexican man who contracted polio as a baby and lost the use of his legs.

His original callipers had broken, which left him unable to walk or work and confined him to crawling about his house.

But thanks to a donation from the generous Miss Brown, of Boughton Street, St John’s, Worcester, who bought a new set of callipers which restored his mobility and independence, it means he is now able to work again and support his family.

Miss Brown already has a supply of physiotherapy equipment which has been kindly donated by colleagues and contacts in Britain but she now needs help to get it shipped across to Mexico to be put to good use.

She said: “The individuals and communities I am working with cannot afford even the most basic health care and physiotherapy equipment in specialist centres is often makeshift. Usiel’s story shows that having proper equipment to hand will make a massive difference to the lives of a number of children and adults. I’m really hoping either an organisation or an individual will be able to donate the funds which will mean I can ship the equipment from Worcester to Mexico.”

For more information visit TherapiesUnite.com or search for their page on Facebook.