Mindy Rietz and Holly Gilshnan playing Uno on one of Mindy's visits to Christchurch.

We are lucky to have the services of Mindy Rietz, a young nurse from Minnesota, USA, who has worked with children with EB at Camp Discovery, the camp in the States that Humphrey and Ashley went to. Since she arrived here at the end of last year Mindy has been working as one of Humphrey's nursing crew and has worked part time for DEBRA NZ. She has spent some time with families with children with EB, as well as adults with EB, discussing their care regimes, helping with dressing changes and giving the parents a break. She is keen to meet more of the DEBRA members, adults as well as children, and is willing to visit, stay a few days, or just call in on anyone who would like to meet her and talk about the issues that are involved in living with EB.

The DEBRA nurse role is also being shared by Francie KW and Wendy Parker, one of Humphrey's care givers, to ensure someone experienced between the 3 of them is available at short notice if a new baby with EB needs special nursing care, or someone with EB needs support urgently.

The success of this project will depend on us being able to secure on-going funding for the nurses time, travel and communication and administration costs.