THIS former Helensburgh student first featured in the Advertiser's pages 15 years ago as she prepared for a life-changing volunteer project in South Africa.

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A CARING student is set to jet off to South Africa to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS.

Gail Hamilton from Helensburgh has registered to spend the summer working with youth groups on a variety of sexual health topics as part of the Student Volunteers Abroad Venda Project.

The 20-year-old Glasgow University film, television and politics student will work with seven others from June 21 until August 13 in Venda, South Africa.

She said: “I remember one of the topics in modern studies in school was Third World debt and since then it has always been something that interested me and I always wanted to be involved in helping in some way.

“I saw an advert in university for the SVA project and applied for it. The more I hear about the project the more I’ve realised that I am really glad to be involved.”