I TAKE my hat off to David Connolly for volunteering to travel to Ghana to set up a life-saving lab that will protect local staff from the diseases they analyse (The Press, December 16).

The lab, ex-Gateshead’s Queen Elizabeth hospital, has been purchased by Dr Mark Egan of the charity Labafrica.

So often our aid to developing countries consists of sending equipment that locals do not know how to set up and use.

So I pray that David’s engineering skills will be backed up by training of the staff to safely operate the lab.

Roger Cook, Galtres Avenue, York.