Pharmacist Kay Tanna. Ref: 77303-14 A SWINDON pharmacist has been chosen to take part in a project to help tsunami victims.

Because many of the drugs donated to tsnuami relief charities are out-of-date or counterfeit, it is vital that these drugs are checked.

Kay Tanna, 40, from Stanton Fitzwarren, has been picked to make the trip to Calcutta with a special mini-lab, which can be used to assist with testing medicines.

Kay, who is the branch manager at Lloyds pharmacy in Clive Parade, in Cricklade Road, has been to India before, but is not quite sure what to expect in the wake of the tsunami.

She said: "I'm a bit apprehensive about what I will find and how I will deal with it.

"I've visited India as a tourist, but I haven't been to Calcutta.

"This project will be in Howrah, the slum area worst affected by the tsunami."

Kay's grandparents were from India and later moved to Africa. Her family were among the 60,000 Asians expelled from Uganda by dictator Idi Amin in 1972.

Kay, who is married to Vijay and has two children Neil, 12, and Nina, 11 said: "My family are excited about the trip, but they are a bit worried.

"I'm not being put up in a four-star hotel. I'll be given the same accommodation as the people living there."

Kay, who has lived in Swindon for 15 years, had to go through a rigorous selection process for the two-week project, which was scheduled for this month, but has just been postponed to September.

She was chosen along with a colleague at Lloyds Pharmacy headquarters in Coventry.

She said: "We're going to Frankfurt for three days' training on how to use the mini-lab.

"The Western world has sent loads of medicines and we have to check whether they are still good enough.

"Once we are in India we will set up the mini-lab and train healthcare assistants there to use it.

"And then we'll leave it there.

"This is my way of giving something back to the world, which has given me so much.

"It's a way of igniting a candle, showing that there is light at the end of the tunnel."