A CHARITY founded in memory of Scottish aid worker Linda Norgrove is to join forces with that of another British woman who lost her life in Afghanistan.

The Linda Norgrove Foundation was named after the worker who died during a failed attempt to rescue her from her Taliban captors.

It will now work with the Karen Woo Foundation to fund a home for disabled children in Kabul.

The decision follows a meeting between the parents of Ms Norgrove, John and Linda, and Karen Woo's mother Lynn.

Dr Woo, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, was shot dead while working in a remote medical clinic. Both women were 36 when they died in 2010.

The Window of Hope Orphanage is home to 13 children, five of them with severe physical disabilities.

The Linda Norgrove Foundation's first grant was to buy beds and toys for the facility in 2011. Before the charity intervened, the children had to sleep on mats on the floor.

The youngsters require sensory stimulation, and new toys, such as musical instruments, are key to their development and ability to communicate.

The two charities, working closely with the Enabled Children Initiative run by the Afghan Professionals Network, will now share the running costs of the orphanage for the next year.

Mrs Norgrove visited the children's home in Kabul with her husband John last year.

She said: "We are not a big charity but our aim is to make a real difference to individuals in Afghanistan.

"Our main focus is women and children, so this home is a project we are keen to support.

"We are particularly pleased to be working with the Karen Woo Foundation and the Enabled Children Initiative run by the Afghan Professionals Network.

"When we met in London recently it was clear we shared a similar vision, not just to help on the ground in Afghanistan but also to encourage people to see the good in the country and not just focus on the negatives."

Lynn Woo's daughter Karen was administering aid in the province of Nuristan when she was ambushed and murdered alongside nine colleagues by men claiming to be Taliban fighters.

Lynn Woo said: "We have made our main focus women and children's health so are keen to support this home, recognising what it has been able to do so far."

Ms Norgrove was born in Altnaharra in Sutherland and grew up on Lewis.

She was working for American aid agency Development Alternatives Inc (DAI) in Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan when she was kidnapped. She died 12 days later on October 8, 2010.

Her parents Lorna and John Norgrove founded a charity in their daughter's name to continue the humanitarian work she was doing in Afghanistan before her death.

To date the Linda Norgrove Foundation has distributed almost £300,000 to fund projects aimed at helping women and children, the victims of decades of conflict.

Initiatives include providing materials to build bread ovens at a widows' refuge in Jalalabad and funding a literary programme for Afghan women.

It has also given funds for basic midwifery training, alongside a medical programme for those living in Afghanistan's mountainous Wakhan Corridor.

Of the country's 30 million population, an estimated two million are widows.

The number of women who die in childbirth is 10 times higher than those who die in conflict.

Stewart Ferguson says he could not wait to get out of hospital after spending all night in the A&E department.

He was admitted to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, at 7pm on March 13, 2012, experiencing spasms in his chest.

Over the following 12 hours he received nothing to eat, and when he buzzed for help as the spasms returned no-one rushed to his assistance.

His experience occurred just weeks before Scottish ministers were sent a report warning that 21 out of 24 A&E departments in Scotland were regularly unsafe. The College of Emergency medicine was so concerned about the quality of care available when patients were backed up in A&Es waiting for ward beds, they surveyed staff about the problems and sent their findings to the Scottish Government.

Mr Ferguson, who had had a heart attack in 2008 and was subsequently fitted with a stent – a tube to keep his arteries open – says he was left on a trolley for almost five hours as no beds were available and was warned he might have to stay on the trolley all night.

Just after midnight, he was told a bed had become available in a side ward, but staff still did not take him into the main hospital where patients are looked after by specialists in their condition.

The retired builder said: "The bed was next to where I was on the trolley, in A&E. I was given no blankets, just a sheet. The sheet was manky and torn with holes in it, like the moths had had a party in it. They left me below an air duct and I had to use my own jacket to keep warm."

Mr Ferguson observed that the nursing staff were rushed off their feet. They offered him tea and toast mid-evening, but it never came. The nurses told Mr Ferguson to press a buzzer for assistance if he had further chest spasms, but when he did have more spasms and rang the buzzer, they took so long to respond that Mr Ferguson feared they might have missed it if he had had a serious event.

"They were arriving 20 minutes to half an hour after I pressed the buzzer," he said. "Once the spasms came on, they said they would monitor me, but by the time they got there it was too late. The spasms had stopped. As soon as it happened, someone should have been there to monitor it and check the symptoms.

"It's not the nurses' fault. They have less and less rooms, less wards," he added.

Mr Ferguson was moved to an assessment ward at 5am. He says: "I could not get out of that place fast enough." He was finally given something to eat at 9am.

Mr Ferguson said he had little faith in the complaints procedure so had not made a formal complaint. He did receive a phone call from the hospital apologising for the way he was treated shortly afterwards, but has heard nothing since and has been left unsatisfied by the apology.

Dr Jean Turner, executive director of the Scotland Patient's Association, said his experience sounded "dreadful". "Why have a buzzer for emergencies if you have to wait for 20 minutes," she said. "A lot can happen in 20 minutes."

Dr Turner, who served as an independent MSP after standing against cuts at Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow, said: "I honestly think if you had a little more slack in the beds you would be able to move people around a little bit more easily and would not be doing such a rush job."

The Royal College of Nursing is among organisations who have highlighted capacity problems in the Scottish health service.

Responding to the College of Emergency Medicine report, Theresa Fyffe, RCN Scotland director, said: "We cannot continue to have people waiting for hours in A&E, either because there are not enough staff or because there's no bed on the right ward for them to go to. RCN Scotland is working with Government on its recently announced unscheduled care action plan and we need to make sure this plan involves nursing teams, who have the full range of skills and experience, including the authority to make decisions on patient care."