It may seem like a hellish scene from the dark ages, but this is the grim reality in civil war-torn Sudan.

Matron for children's services at Peterborough District Hospital (PDH) Sue Hartley was taken aback by the shocking conditions at the Gaffar Ibn Aouf Children's Hospital in Khartoum, the country's capital, where she spent two weeks.

She was there to do some hands-on work with children and share her years of expertise with staff.

The 48-year-old was so moved by the experience, she has decided to take a three month career break in November to spend more time helping orphaned children.

However, Ms Hartley, who has worked at PDH for five years and has spent more than 30 years working in hospitals in this country, as well as the Middle East, needs businesses to sponsor her so she can raise the £1,500 for the trip.

She aims to set up a permanent link between the two hospitals.

She said: "I was invited there by the chief clinician who is a friend of one of my colleagues at PDH, consultant paediatrician Dr Seif Babiker.

"I prepared for my trip by talking extensively to my Sudanese medical colleagues in the UK and by reading as much as I could find about the geopolitical and socio economic situation in Khartoum.

"The war in Darfur has created a massive population shift to the capital, including displaced orphan children who are in desperate need of care.

"Gaffar Ibn Aouf is a relatively new hospital but it has been systematically neglected during the political upheaval and is now stripped of virtually all the things that we would find essential – intermittent electricity, intermittent water, broken or non-existent equipment, no oxygen supply, stolen or damaged generators, smashed toilets and even cats running around the wards.

"They want to be sophisticated there but they are working in a medieval working environment.

"They have a fully equipped ICU, but no one knows how to use it.