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A young woman has told how a house collapsed around her during the powerful earthquake which claimed thousands of lives in Nepal.
Lois O’Leary, 25, was teaching English for six weeks in the village of Melamchi Ghyang and was staying with the head teacher’s family when the tremors started on Saturday, April 25.
The former Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar School pupil, from Herne, was injured when the home she was staying in fell to the ground.
She had to clamber to safety through the ruins, then had to survive for seven days under a makeshift shelter before she could return home.
She said: “Initially when I felt the quakes I thought it will just pass and that it was not significant, but I was with the head teacher’s wife Jangmu, and the look on her face showed she was scared.
“The alarm made me realise that this was definitely not something normal. It lasted for about 40 seconds or so.
“We flew to the doorway of the house, as we couldn’t run outside as everything around was collapsing.
“Everything around was coming down, I was holding onto the door for dear life because it was so violent. I’m a Christian and she is a devout Buddhist, and we were both praying for it to end.”
Most of the buildings in the village were destroyed in the earthquake which measured 7.8 on the Richter scale and killed thousands of people.
The country has since been hit by powerful aftershocks and a second earthquake measuring 7.3 on Tuesday.
After the first quake, Lois managed to escape through the rubble.
She said: “I was so lucky that I wasn’t trapped. There was an opening directly above us which was a godsend.
“I was going on adrenaline. I had been hit on the head and there were small drops of blood. I had injuries to my hands and legs, and a ruptured muscle in my leg, but I couldn’t feel the pain. I knew it had been pretty close.”
Two people were killed in the village, which is in the mountainous region about 30 miles north of the capital Kathmandu. Lois saw the funerals for the people who had died.
She said: “One chap had been up on the hill with his 15-year-old son. The son was badly injured, so it was a great loss for the family. The families are getting lots of help from the community but they are in mourning.”
After the disaster Lois’s parents Simon and Sue O’Leary, who live in Curtis Wood Park Road in Herne, faced a nervous wait with phone lines down in the village.
Lois managed to send word to them via a friend in Germany after two days, and returned to the family home on Wednesday, May 6.
Sue, who works at Herne Infant School, was relieved to get the message. She said: “On the Saturday when the earthquake hit I wasn’t too concerned as we believed Lois was not in the earthquake area but as the day progressed the news was that earthquake was far more widespread.
"By Sunday we registered Lois with the Foreign Office on the missing persons list as she was in the mountain region which was worst-affected.
“When I got the phone call from Germany two-and-a-half days later the relief was enormous. Simon and I went to the airport and held Lois for a long time.”
The family have since been raising money for Community Action Nepal with the help of Herne Infant School, Simon Langton Girls’ and Dane Court Grammar Schools.
Pupils at Herne Infants have made prayer flags and have raised more than £400 so far.
Head teacher Liz Thomas-Friend added: “Lois is a former pupil here and is part of the school family. It helps for the children to have awareness of the events in the world around them.
“The response has been really moving. Children have written very heartfelt prayers.”
To find out more about donating visit www.justgiving.com/LoisInNepal
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