A widow who has raised thousands of dollars in memory of her late husband to help African orphans is appealing to Bermuda to support her latest plan.

Gaynell Hayward hopes in 2009 to be able to send vital drugs to Kenya to help lengthen the lifespan of youngsters suffering from AIDS at an orphanage named after her late husband John.

"My wish list, my Christmas dream this year, would be to see them able to have the antiretrovirals; the medication that will prolong their lives and give them a quality of life," the mother-of-two and grandmother told The Royal Gazette. "I'm just trying to do what it is that I can do."

On May 30, 2009, it will be 10 years since Mrs. Hayward lost her beloved firefighter husband to a heart attack, when he was aged 42. The premature death prompted the couple's friend Tabitha Osiany to name her orphanage in Kenya after him.

In the decade since, Mrs. Hayward has led numerous fundraising drives on the Island, both to help the Hayward Community Orphanage Program in the Rongo District and local charities.

In 2008, Mrs. Hayward raised $24,000 – half of which went to Kenya and the other half to a church scheme here providing breakfasts for needy youngsters.

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of her husband's death, she is organising a golf tournament on June 14 and is looking for sponsors to help her raise the most funds possible for the Kenyan orphans and Bermuda Island Association for the Deaf.

"If I was able to get five major sponsors, meaning from $3,000 to $5,000 each, then we would be able to raise a fair amount of money," said the former Nurse of the Year.

She is hoping to team up with another fundraiser in Bermuda in 2009: teacher Dr. John Madiro, whose Aid 4 Africa initiative also helps AIDS orphans. "We can try and engage a pharmaceutical company in the US who will maybe be able to assist us," said Mrs. Hayward.

She also wants to bring Mrs. Osiany to Bermuda in 2009 and return to Kenya herself.

She recalls the moment in 2008 when her friend called her to say she'd bought blankets and clothing for the children with the money raised in Bermuda.

"They were actually being distributed and I could hear them in the background and they were just so happy," she said. "Tabitha said 'I wish you were here to see them'. I felt really very happy about that."

AIDS and HIV deaths are commonplace in Kenya, leaving hundreds of thousands of children without parents and often infected themselves.

Mrs. Osiany said: "We are still continuing with the Hayward project. We received some funds from Mrs. Hayward and we were able to give out blankets and food to the orphans. I wish you were here to see the joy in their faces.

"While we targetted 100 at the time, 300 turned out plus 100 caretakers who were mainly grandmothers and widows who were actually people living with AIDS. "We were so thankful to Mrs. Hayward and we still look forward to raising more funds towards these orphans."

If you can help Mrs. Hayward e-mail gaynell56@yahoo.com.