A SCOT who clears landmines in some of the world’s most hazardous countries has welcomed a UK Government commitment to double donations to her charity.

Mum-of-one Rachel Brock said the danger of the deadly devices had hit home even more now that she was a parent.

The Edinburgh-born mine clearance expert started working for Dumfries-based demining charity the HALO Trust when she was just 23-years-old and vividly remembers the first time she tackled an explosive device in Cambodia.

“It was very, very scary,” said Brock, who is now 36. “When I first cleared landmines, I was absolutely petrified.

“I was inching and scraping towards it, knowing it was there, and very, very happy once I found it, that that was it, it was revealed, and I could move on. Once I’d done that first one, I felt a lot more confident. You gain confidence as you go on.

“After Cambodia, I had my daughter and now I’m a parent, it hits home even more.”

HALO’s Breaking Boundaries campaign aims to raise money to clear around 105,000m-squared of land in Zimbabwe to save more than 3000 people from the threat of landmines.

All donations to the charity up to December 22 will be doubled by the Department for International Development through its UK Aid Match scheme.

With UK aid support, HALO declared Mozambique mine free in 2015 after clearing more than 171,000 explosives – enabling the country’s economy to surge by 7% a year. Now it aims to achieve the same in Angola and Zimbabwe.

“People in Scotland can be proud that a Scottish charity with its headquarters in Dumfries is a world leader in protecting people from mines,” said Brock.

“The charity has cleared 1.6 million mines since it was founded in 1988 and hopefully people get behind this UK Aid match campaign to help us take another step towards making the world mine free by 2025.”

She pointed out that Zimbabwe was one of the most heavily mined countries in the world with more than 1550 people killed by the devices and many more maimed.

“It’s nearly 40 years since masses of landmines were laid during the Liberation War and people are still being killed,” said Brock.

“The human cost is huge. More than 100,000 cattle have been killed too, which threatens livelihoods. HALO’s work is about removing this danger, so children can walk to school or people can cultivate the land without fear of being blown up.

“Every pound the public gives to our Breaking Boundaries campaign is being doubled by the UK Government through UK Aid Match, which means we can clear twice as many minefields and help twice as many people.”

HALO was founded in Afghanistan in 1988 and now removes mines and devices in 27 countries and states.

Around 8000 people are killed and injured by landmines and other explosive debris every year and 78% of the casualties are civilians.

In the last 10 years, 18 deminers, all local HALO staff, have been killed in accidents while clearing explosives and another 45 have been seriously injured. During the same period, HALO has cleared around 600,000 landmines and employed an average of 7400 people.

International Development Secretary Alok Sharma said: “I am proud that through UK Aid Match, we will double generous donations from the British public to help rid Zimbabwe of these deadly explosives.”