The following is taken from the BBC 'Home Truths' website, where you can here the recording - the web page contents are included here to provide another piece in the story of May and her Gambian journey of self discovery.
Please visit the Home Truths website

"May was an art student when she went on holiday to The Gambia in West Africa. Taking more of an interest in the country than a visitor passing through, she noticed that the schools were woefully short of basic equipment, such as pencils and paper. She decided, quite simply, to build a paper mill.

Over the course of a year and with the help of friends, her modest savings and a lot of hard work, May achieved her dream. The Paper Recycling Project was born. In 1999 May moved to the The Gambia, a country with which she felt so much affinity, for good. She expected life to be hard, and for the first year it certainly was, but she never regretted her decision.

Then Amat, now May's husband, entered her life. He had trouble convincing May he was serious (many Gambian men had pursued May because she was a Westerner) but his unceasing work on the project caused May to see him with new eyes. In spite of their different cultures, there was little opposition to the couple getting married. Respect and understanding, they were told time and again by the village elders was the basis of a good marriage.

They have prospered together - the mill is now is doing well and May and Amat have even begun to train school leavers in the art of paper-making. The couple are in Britain with May's family until the birth of their first child in November and then they will return to the their paper mill with their baby - at present referred to as 'Junior Papermaker'. "

May's link with GTS has been crucial, May agreed to be the GTS sponsorship co-ordinator and has introduced the key staff - Kabs and Mansa and encouraged then to take position within GTS.

Where May intended to make scrap paper into books for schools, I pushed her into taking the process further to taking the beautiful hand made sheets of paper and binding them into books for sale to tourists.

She somewhat reluctantly agreed and there are now hundreds of PRSP books around the world, each one is quite beautiful and the proceeds now purchase many times more exercise books that Mays little paper mill copuld possibly produce.

May invisted me as a trustee of her Charity, in Gambia and when GTS decided to register in Gambia both May and Amat agreed to be trustees for GTS.

May continues to provide support to GTS and has been and still is an inspiration to us. We hope that GTS and the PRSP will continue to work closely in the future, as our joint aims of employment and education fit so easily together, that we can share many resources.