A KNUTSFORD orthodontist is celebrating five years of her charity which helps children in Africa.

Dr Beatrice Luciola, who runs Beyond Orthodontics in Cheshire Lodge on Bexton Lane, has been based in the town for three years.

She helped to set up Operation Smile Kenya in the early 1990s, and spends a month each year in the country supporting the charity’s ongoing work.

She also launched her own charity in 2008 – the Luciola Foundation – helping people with serious health issues in and around Funzi Island in Kenya, alongside teams of healthcare professionals who she hopes to recruit from the UK and the local community.

“I am really excited about how much involvement there has been from people interested in the kind of charity work that inspired my career in specialist orthodontist clinical care,” she said.

“We are now celebrating a five-year anniversary of a charity that started with my husband and I taking some things over to Funzi Island as gifts we thought they might appreciate.

“Now we have a foundation that appreciates the donation of time, skills and the things that people consider to be part of their normal life to the islanders of Funzi.

“Footballer Tim Howard has given football boots that were well received by the local children, who now have an active football club.

“Another of my patients has given his services to design a website about The Luciola Foundation set to go live soon.”