Blyth town councillor Grant Davey speaks of pride in midwife daughter working in earthquake-ravaged Turkey

Town councillor Grant Davey's daughter Helen has been helping victims of the Turkish earthquake.

Helen Davey is working in the disaster zone with UK-Med, a frontline medical aid charity deployed to the country immediately after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake in February.

Helen is the daughter of Blyth town councillors Grant and Susan Davey. Grant was the Labour leader of Northumberland County Council between 2013 and 2017, and continued to serve as councillor for Kitty Brewster before stepping down at the 2021 local elections.

He is currently a member of Blyth Town Council, serving the Kitty Brewster ward.

Mr Davey spoke of his pride in his daughter’s work, which has taken the Northumberland-born midwife all over the world.

He said: “The place is pretty devastated. Helen is so keen – she does this type of thing a lot and has worked abroad for some time.

“She trained in Ashington and Cramlington hospitals and at Northumbria University to be a nurse, then did her midwife training at Manchester. She did one-to-one services work about safe home delivery across the country.

“When the funding for that was stopped, she went to work in Uganda for 14 months on home delivery and a little bit of training, before going to India.

“From there she went with the UN to Laos, then this emergency happened. She went out with UK Med and seems to be roughing it, living in a camp with 1,500 people who have lost their homes.

“There’s lots of babies being born. “I’m really proud of her. We worry for her, as you can imagine, working in these places. She’s toughed it out all over the place.”

Helen isn’t the only healthcare professional in the family, as her sisters also work in healthcare.

Mr Davey added: “We are just as proud of our other three NHS heroes linked with our family, Alyson who’s a paramedic, Charlotte who’s an anaesthetist and Zelda who’s a dental nurse. They are all excellent and lovely heroes in our eyes.”

UK-Med is fundraising to help more people affected by the quake. To make a donation,go to https://www.uk-med.org/turkey-syria-appeal/