The Leprosy Mission is an international Christian development organisation that diagnoses, treats and offers specialist care, including reconstructive surgery, to leprosy patients. We may think that leprosy, so often featured in Biblical accounts, is no longer a concern nowadays, but the truth is that this mildly-infectious disease caused by a bacillus called Mycobacterium leprae – a relative of the TB bacillus – occurs where there is dirty water, bad nutrition and poor standards of living, meaning people’s immune systems are not strong and they are unable to fight the disease, withWorld Health Organisation figures revealing that there are around a quarter of a million new cases of leprosy diagnosed globally each year and there are more than three million people living with irreversible disabilities, including blindness, as a result of the late treatment of leprosy.
One way of raising money for the Leprosy Mission is through collecting stamps from letters received. Our church is happy to receive your stamps and we will post them on to the missionary society. Stamps on paper (eg still on the envelope) should have no more than 5mm of single thickness border around each edge. Self-adhesive stamps should be left on paper, as soaking them off damages the stamps.
Last year, the Leprosy Mission raised £127,341 from stamps! Further information can be found here.
