A sick young girl suffering from severe heart disease in El Salvador received welcome support over Christmas, thanks to British Veteran, Former Actor and Richmond Resident, Ray Perrin, through his organisation, Children of Latin America (COLA) and the Chain of Hope children’s charity.

The cheque of £5,000 was presented to the CEO of Chain of Hope, Emma Scanlan who is also a resident of East Twickenham. Emma says the charity is grateful to the COLA for helping to bring hope to another child this Christmas.

COLA recently hosted a dinner at the Richmond Gate Hotel where the urgently needed funds were raised. The donation will sponsor young Alejandra from San Salvador to have a life-saving open- heart surgery.

Mr Perrin says he decided to raise funds for children suffering from heart disease, because he has been personally impacted by heart disease and has undergone open heart surgery himself. He added that COLA was formed 16 years ago to help children living in Central and South America, by improving access to health care, education and child protection. The organisation will continue to work with other charities and embassies to achieve this goal.

Chain of Hope, a children’s cardiac charity organises teams of highly skilled medical volunteers to operate on children suffering from heart disease across the world. The charity will arrange for young Alejandra to fly to one of its partner hospitals in early 2019 for surgery.