Students provide specialist foot care at
Calais migrant camps
E
ARLIER IN THE year, two
podiatry students from QMU
travelled to Calais to provide
much needed healthcare support for
migrants in the refugee camp known
as ‘The Jungle’.
The students who are studying the BSc
Podiatry degree volunteered to provide
specialist foot care for many of the
migrants who had travelled thousands
of miles to reach the infamous camp in
France. They then returned months later
to assist refugees after The Jungle camp
had been dispersed with smaller camps
forming all over Calais.
Danielle Knox, aged 25 and Christine
McSweeney aged 42, both from Stirling,
were keen to put politics aside and just do
something that would ease the suffering
of the migrant population.
“ Because of the conditions,
people were presenting
with trench foot and fungal
infections. ”
Christine said: “When watching the
crisis on TV we could see that there
was a human trail of people who had
walked thousands of miles across
many countries. So, when we saw the
promotion asking for volunteers on the
Foot Care project, it was obvious that
we could offer our help.
“The experience was a real eye
opener. People were living in really awful
conditions. It was freezing, wet