DEVIZES grandmother Valerie Thomas is bound for Kenya for the second time this year.

Mrs Thomas, of Orchard Close, will be heading off to an area north of Nairobi for several months to carry out scientific research with the environmental charity Earthwatch after winning an Earthwatch Millennium Award.

She will work with leading scientists from the charity who aim to track down vital data to protect unique natural and economic resources of the lakes in the Rift Valley.

But when Mrs Thomas returns she will have to undertake her own environmental projects in the Devizes area, and she already has a very shrewd idea of what she wants to do.

She said: "I often take my four-year-old granddaughter Bethany to the Crammer and I have always wondered about the comings and goings of the birds on the pond. I would like to undertake a study which would involve ringing them and finding out where else they go."

Another project would be to develop a notice board at Drews Pond Wood to show illustrations of birds, plants and invertebrates.

Mrs Thomas was in Kenya earlier this year, helping to distribute 300 reconditioned wheelchairs for the charity Wheels for the World. The chairs had been collected by another charity, Inside Out, and mended by prisoners at Parkhurst and other jails in England.

Mrs Thomas, a retired occupational therapist said: "I was absolutely delighted when I was told I had been accepted for the Earthwatch trip."