A team of NI healthcare workers are preparing to head to Lebanon to help provide medical services to Syrian refugees.
Dr Daniel Hayes and Dr Graeme Crawford from Redwood Surgery in Bangor will be returning to Beirut with a team two other doctors, a nurse and two dentists.
The surgery completed 5288km - the distance from Belfast to Beirut - by walking, running, swimming and cycling in the month of June. This was done to raise money to buy medical and personal hygiene supplies for the trips in September and October.
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Dr Hayes, who made his first trip to Lebanon in 2019, told Belfast Live : "The opportunity there is to support the Lebanese people who are providing care to Syrian refugees who have crossed the border into their country.
"We are seeking to provide them with access to healthcare. It's very difficult for them, and of course what we can provide for them in a short trip is really a drop in the ocean. Their needs are much greater than that but it is a great encouragement for our friends in Lebanon who are doing this work day in day out to know that there are people willing to stand alongside them for a short period of time.
"We might be doing it one week, but there could be another group from America or New Zealand that would do similar work another week. It is also encouraging for the refugees, it gives them some humanity and dignity back and an opportunity to tell their story."
Dr Hayes added how the refugees told him of their suffering and challenging experiences - but how they were now pleased to be in a safe place and being cared for.
"Although we can't deal with all the medical problems that are being presented to us, [they] know that somebody has taken the time to fly from the other side of the world to be with them and to do whatever they can.
"It was incredibly humbling to see the journeys that people had made to get to Lebanon, to see the suffering that they'd experienced, but also the gratitude that was being shown to the folk that are now supporting them.
"It was unimaginable what they had been through. When I examined patients, I would ask them to tell me their story and a man told me that he had to hide his daughter in a sewer...
"Very, very challenging circumstances... but they were so pleased to be in a safe place where people were paying attention to them and trying their best to give them the care they needed," the Bangor doctor said.
To donate to the fundraiser to help provide care for Syrian refugees in Lebanon, CLICK HERE.
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