The Koru Hospital Fund, originally set up to improve medical facilities for residents in a remote village in Kenya, celebrated its 25th anniversary recently.

The occasion was marked with a party at Douglas Golf Club, attended by more than 60 of the charity’s supporters.

A spokesman for the charity said: ’Supporters were entertained by the multi-talented Kilgallon family, also known as ’’The Kiltrapps’’, who provided a superb mix of traditional Manx music and song culminating in a boisterous finale of ceili dancing.’

The Koru Hospital Fund came about in 1991, following a visit to Koru, which is a rural village in western Kenya, by Isle of Man College employee Mary Stewart, along with three students from the college.

The first challenge they took on was to build a hospital, and this was done with the help of generous funding from both supporters and the Isle of Man government. The Koru hospital was completed in 2002.

Other projects followed in the wake of this success, including the re-opening of the Koru Youth Polytechnic by Mrs Stewart in 2008.

A village savings and loan scheme was also established.

A little later, the charity moved its focus to a nearby village, Koguta. There, a bore hole was sunk in 2011, making clean water available to the village during the long dry season.

A more recent project was the opening of the Freja Stewart-Hansen Preparatory School in Koguta in January 2015.

Four teachers plus the head work there, teaching 57 pupils aged three to six a range of subjects including English.

The celebration raised more than £2,300, and this included contributions of £800 from David Johnson of Sterling Trust, and Ernie Russell who also donated £800.

Thanks were made to the congregation of St Antony’s church for their support to the charity over the years, with Alan Stone receiving a particular mention.

The charity welcomes donations which can be sent to the treasurer, Paul Smart, at [email protected]