IN our third Pride of East Lancashire Award we are searching for vocational workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to help others.

Earlier this year a medical team from East Lancashire did just that.

The team headed to India in a mission to give new hope to deprived children through life-transforming surgery.

Known popularly as Dr George, Dr Teturswamy, a member of The Rotary Club of Blackburn Borough, became involved with the Holdsworth Mission Hospital in Mysore around ten years ago after reading about it in the Rotarians' international magazine.

This year the Blackburn Royal Infirmary consultant and Accrington nurses Carol and Michael Ward went to the hospital in the south of the country to help carry out cleft lip and palate operations on children as young as seven months old.

During an eight-day visit they, and ten other health professionals from around the country in a team which had been put together by Dr George, performed around 40 operations.

The work is done purely on a voluntary basis in their own time with consignments of redundant NHS equipment.

On a previous trip the team worked gruelling 12-hour sessions, performing 40 operations in seven days to transform the life of patients aged between seven months and 17 years old.

It cost £15,000 and was paid for by the team's own money and through fundraising initiatives.

Dr George, an anaesthetist at Blackburn Royal Infirmary for 18 years, said: "It's a big problem in India and in Mysore it's a major problem.

"If we did not do anything about it then nobody would."

In many professions throughout East Lancashire there are outstanding individuals who go that extra mile to benefit others.

We want you to write in and let us know about anyone you know who fits the bill.

Nominees for the Pride of East Lancashire Award for Outstanding Vocational Worker can be from any profession.

Nominations might be from the emergency services, health professions, the armed forces or could be teachers, religious ministers, bus drivers, milkmen or lollipop ladies.

All that is asked is that they go that step further than their job description in the name of others.

As with all 11 award categories you can nominate yourself, a friend, colleague or relative at www.thisislancashire.co.uk or by completing a nomination coupon.

Nominations must be received by September 30.