WHATEVER age you are, it’s always a treat to come back to Mum and Dad, but it’s even more special for Bex Okotel, 38, from Corfe Mullen, who is visiting her parents in Poole from Uganda.

In 2006 Bex left Dorset to work with a charity and not only lost her heart to the children, but also to a Ugandan called Moses, whom she then married.

For Bex’s parents, having their daughter to stay is even more precious because in 2006 she was virtually raised from her death bed while in intensive care in Johannesburg. “She was air-lifted to hospital after being hit with a stroke (a simultaneous blood clot and bleed on the brain) seven weeks after arriving in Uganda,” her father, Les Sherlock, explains.

“We flew out there to pray for her and saw her dramatic recovery take place before our eyes.”

Speaking from her parents’ home, Bex says: “I can remember having a terrible headache and also Mum and Dad praying over me.”

After several months, Bex was able to return to Uganda and started to make a difference.

Bex and Moses started off with a small nursery of about 30 to 40 children. But they are now able to support 81 children in the nursery, and those too old to be there are being sponsored through primary school. The couple are now in the process of building a permanent school building.

“Every aspect of the child is important to us,” Bex says. “From health care, education, food and also their mums – if their mums are badly off, the child suffers. “So we work with the women to set up their own businesses.”

• To support Bex and Moses’ work click related links below.