Heartbreak & Turning 50 Lorna's Tears In Nepal

How the Leprosy Mission Gifted the Mum a Reality Check
 

- Amy Prebble

Broadcaster Lorna Subritzky looked on in dismay as a young man was officially diagnosed with leprosy in front of her at a Kathmandu clinic run by The Leprosy Mission.

“I thought he would be devastated,” the radio host says. “But he was excited because he had known for four years that he had leprosy, but you cannot get treatment until it shows up in your blood. So for him it was, ‘This is great. I can go and get treated and I can get back to work.’”

Leprosy can be effectively treated with antibiotics if picked up in time.

“The crazy thing is that leprosy shouldn’t still exist,” says Lorna, who was invited to Nepal by the Leprosy Mission so she could see the reality of their work. She admits that she found the prospect daunting but, with turning 50 this year, thought, “You know what? What a bucket-list thing that is and what an amazing opportunity.

“They were right in sending me because Coast FM has done annual appeals for the last four years and I’ve given it my all. But there is nothing like seeing what they do and realising that the money we give is actually genuinely changing somebody’s life,” she says.