Nurse to aid Pakistan quake victims

LAUREL STOWELL | 15th November 2005

Warm jumpers and coats and a laptop computer make up some of the luggage a Wanganui theatre nurse takes to earthquake-hit Pakistan today.

Tom Jones flies out of Wanganui for the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, at 12.45pm.

He's one of 10 New Zealanders sent by the Red Cross to northern Pakistan to help in the relief effort following the October 8 earthquake.

The quake measured 7.6 on the Richter scale. It has killed 86,000, injured another 100,000 and left about 3.5 million homeless.

Mr Jones is heading for a multi-national field hospital in Abbottabad, just north of Islamabad. It has been treating 100,000 people a day.

"I'll do anything that they require of me that I'm capable of doing," he said.

He has been warned to respect Islamic custom ? especially not to drink alcohol or photograph Muslim women.

For the past seven weeks Mr Jones has been working as a practice nurse for Whanganui Accident and Medical Clinic.

After his six-month stint for the Red Cross he's been invited to return there, or to Wanganui Hospital.

He said he'd only ever travelled in Europe and North America, and had never done Red Cross work before.

"I was having lunch in the Rutland Hotel when I saw a job ad for the Red Cross in the Chronicle, and I sent my CV."

He would be paid for his six months' work, but not well paid. The money wasn't his primary concern.

His wife, Rachel, also a theatre nurse, said she wouldn't dream of holding him back and he would give her the same freedom if she was in a similar situation. Son Adam, 10, was proud of his dad for "doing his bit".

They will be able to go with him if he does a second mission, and he plans to keep in touch with them by cellphone and email.