Recipes cook up cash help for Malawi

A RECIPE book and a calendar put together by an Edinburgh midwife have helped raise £120,000 for hospital facilities in Malawi.

Linda McDonald, who works at the Royal Infirmary's Simpson Maternity Centre, started fundraising after a visit to a baby ward in the poverty-stricken African country.

The recipe book, endorsed by Sarah Brown - the wife of Chancellor Gordon - was published in October 2005.

Mrs McDonald said: "We printed 20,000 recipe books and have only 100 left.

"And the Royal Bank of Scotland, which sponsored the first book, has agreed to sponsor a second recipe book which we will publish this autumn."

The recipe book raised cash for Mums - the Malawi Underprivileged Mothers (MUMS) charity.

The organisation is helping to raise funds for a new high-risk maternity hospital being built in the Malawian capital Lilongwe, and a refurbishment of the city's Bottom Hospital.