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Laura Carmichael – Downton Abbey’s Lady Edith – travelled to Haiti this week, three years after the earthquake that killed 300,000 and decimated the lives of countless more . She met some of the devastated people still struggling to survive. Here she talks to the Sunday Mirror of her shock at seeing the appalling conditions they face every day and the suffering they endure...

Like many people, my first real awareness of Haiti was when the terrible images of the 2010 ­earthquake exploded on to our TV screens. It was one of the worst natural disasters in recent history, and it nearly destroyed the capital, Port-au-Prince.

In recent years the country’s plight has faded from the headlines as, inevitably, other tragedies have come to the fore. Last year a friend invited me to a charity fundraiser for The Haiti Hospital Appeal.

I was so moved by the desperate stories I heard that I decided to get involved. I’m now a patron and I’m writing this from the charity’s hospital in Cap-Haitien.

In the last series of Downton Abbey my on-screen sister Lady Sybil died during childbirth. One hundred years on from when the period drama is set, the women of Haiti still face the very real danger that they will die in childbirth.

Nothing could have prepared me for that terrible reality and I was truly humbled by my visit. On our first day I was taken to Petit Anse, a neighbourhood built on the remains of a rubbish dump.

(Image: Hunter Kittrell)

We were taken around by Pastor Robert, whose own home for his family of eight consists of just two tiny rooms of bare concrete. Like the other makeshift houses, it has no running water or electricity.

The ground outside has an unnerving springy feeling underfoot. Streams of filthy stagnant water and open sewage flow through the rows of houses as crabs scuttle about. It is in these disease-infested waters that the children bathe. Searing heat makes the dreadful smells stronger.

Between 75 and 90 per cent of Haitians live without adequate sanitation. It is no surprise then that this community is one of the worst hit by the cholera epidemic that grips the country. It has already claimed more than 8,200 lives – the worst a single country has ever faced.

Pastor Robert’s wife greeted us with her four-month-old baby. She was lucky – she had made it to hospital in time for an emergency Caesarian section.

But her close friend’s baby had tragically died after she had gone into labour at night without any medical support. HHA is now working to set up a free ambulance service for pregnant women.

It is just one of the many life-saving projects it has planned. The main focus of its work is a 70-bed hospital in ­Cap-Haitien, which last year alone saw 11,000 patients through its doors.

The hospital was the vision of a local man, Dr Toussaint, who was there to greet me on my arrival. Staff even raised a banner, saying: “Welcome to Haiti Laura Carmichael, AKA Lady Edith.”

(Image: Hunter Kittrell)

I was completely overwhelmed. What they have created here is nothing short of extraordinary. Originally planned as a maternity and paediatric centre, the hospital swiftly evolved to cope with the devastation of the ­earthquake.

There is now a spinal ­rehabilitation centre, an emergency ­ambulance service, a community health centre and a respite centre for disabled children. HHA also helps run the largest cholera treatment centre in North Haiti.

Dr Toussaint smiles, saying today there are only 37 cholera patients. But the rainy season is on its way so the numbers are set to soar. The cholera mortality rate in the hospital’s target zone was 13 per cent at its peak but groups like the HHA have helped reduce that to 0.3 per cent, saving thousands.

The maternity ward saw more than 5,000 women last year. Dr Toussaint showed us one baby who had been left in a critical condition after being born at home without medical help. But in the past five years, the number of women delivering at home without medical support has dropped from 75% to 63%.

In the paediatric unit I was introduced to a fragile abandoned baby struggling for life. Bety had the life-threatening condition ­hydrocephalus. As she was placed in my arms, I could feel my heart beating through my chest. Despite Dr ­Toussaint’s valiant efforts, this baby had a minimal chance of survival. In the UK, hydrocephalus can usually be controlled. It was the first of many times I had to take a breath to stop the tears.

(Image: Nick Briggs/Carnival Films)

While they will do everything in their power to save this fragile life, the medical team explain that it’s common for ­children to die needlessly every day. The children treated at this paediatric unit at least stand a chance.

We moved on to meet a family with a disabled girl at their rudimentary house surrounded by flooded ­marshlands. But as we approached we saw the path was flooded. Our guide looked crestfallen as we were forced to turn back, leaving the family isolated. With that memory embedded in my mind, I’m now helping to launch A Royal Birth – a campaign to provide women and babies in Haiti with safe births.

Coming here has challenged me. I realise that like many others I had moved on too quickly from the ­devastating images of 2010. Sunday Mirror readers were ­incredibly generous at pledging support in the aftermath of the ­quake, but the country needs our help now more than ever.