1   What is Lifecycle ?

2   What happened in Bhopal ?

3   What are Lifecycle’s Aims ?

4   How can I sponsor Lifecycle ?

5   Where will all donations go ?

6   What is Sambhavna ?

7   Who is Tim Edwards ?

8  What has happened to our intrepid explorer so far ?

1.  What is Lifecycle ?

• Lifecycle is the name of one man’s 6000 mile sponsored cycle trek from Brighton in the UK to Bhopal in India. It will raise desperately needed funds for the Bhopal Medical Appeal which was set up in 1994 in response to the continuing suffering of survivors of the Union Carbide chemical disaster, the largest industrial accident in world history. 
• Lifecycle is endorsed by the Pesticides Trust, registered charity number 327215.
  
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2.  What happened in Bhopal ?

• It was here in Bhopal that a gas leak, which dominated the International media in 1984, created the world's worst chemical disaster. 
• Fourteen years on, hundreds of thousands of people are still suffering the consequences.
• Many are dying and many more have permanent exposure related illnesses.
• Please follow this for more detailed information of the horrific event.
  
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3.  What are Lifecycle's aims ?

• To prompt urgent sympathy for the ongoing tragedy of Bhopal
• To raise money for the Bhopal Medical Appeal.  Money raised will help to ensure the continuance of the relief effort on the ground, assist local people in their daily struggle to cope with life in the wake of the disaster.  The money may also save lives.
• To raise awareness of the continuing suffering of gas victims and their families.
• To undertake voluntary work for a period of time after arrival in Bhopal.
  
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4.  How can I sponsor Lifecycle ?
 

• Fill in the sponsorship form.  Then email, post or fax it!  You do not have to send money yet, you can wait until he reaches Bhopal.
  
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5.  Where will all donations go ?
 

• Through exposure to Carbide's deadly gases people have suffered permanent damage to their lungs, eyes, kidneys, livers, blood, digestion, nerves, muscles, bones and immune systems. Mental illness is widespread. Long term health monitoring has been abandoned so that standard medical responses are imprecise and often inappropriate.  Your donations will fund independent health monitoring, leading to rational and appropriate treatments.
   
• Many people are too ill to travel to the out of town hospitals, creating a proliferation of expensive private clinics. Only a fraction of a recent health budget has gone into inexpensive community based health care.  Your donations will help provide free health care rooted in the community.
   
• Poor monitoring of both survivors and casualties makes providing eligibility for compensation very difficult. Your donations eill aid the verbal autopsy programme.
  
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6.  What is Sambhavna ?

• There has, however, been one beacon of hope in Bhopal:”Sambhavna, the Peoples Health and Documentation Clinic”.
   
• Set up by the proceeds of the Bhopal Medical Appeal in 1994, Sambhavna works for the welfare of survivors through free medical care, research, education and dissemination of information."
   
• For over two years Sambhavna has struggled against the odds to provide a priceless source of relief for the thousands who come from the worst affected areas, many of whom are unable to make the journey to the state hospital 11km outside of the city.  Also, Sambhavna has saved some of the poorest people in the world from having to pay extortionate fees for useless medicines.
   
• The clinic is firmly rooted in the community, operating on a no turn away policy and treating all free of charge.  It actively involves survivors in determining their own course of treatment, comibining conventional medicine, ayurvedic approaches and yoga.  It has dramatically successful results: patients reported 50% remission of complaints such as breathlessness and fatigue within only weeks of attending. Considerable and persistent relief form pain has been claimed. And by 1996, sixty new patients were being registerd at the clinic every day.
  
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7.  Who is Tim Edwards ?

• A meak, mild mannered, healthy individual who has been inspired by the plight of the Bhopali’s to perform this incredible journey alone.  He has his own page here.
  
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8.  What has happened to our intrepid explorer so far ?

• Tim is in regular contact, via email and telephone.  His will be posting  updates of his progress to this site.  Please see the News or the Diary pages for more details.
  
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