A TEAM of nursing students will be packing their stethoscopes and rubber gloves and travelling more than 4,500 miles to care for people in west Africa this summer.

Twenty-five students and staff from the University of Southampton will help repair a rundown medical centre in Ghana and care for those living nearby.

They are supporting the charity AMECA (Alex’s Medical and Educational Clinic in Africa), founded in December 2006 by Surrey woman Ruth Markus, in memory of her only child, Lt Alex Coutselos, a doctor in the British Army, who died aged 23.

The students’ challenge has already started, as each hopes to raise at least £2,200 before the trip, to help fund the project and the charity’s ongoing work, building a health clinic in the central African state of Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world.