AN ASPIRING midwife has turned her hand to baking as she raises money to pay for work experience on a Caribbean island.

Sixteen-year-old Lauren Pender, from Kendal, has known since the age of 11 that she wanted to help mothers to deliver their babies.

But UK hospitals do not allow work experience until the age of 18.

Now, she has secured a Gap Medics placement in the Dominican Republic this August and is looking to raise £1,000 to help pay for her two-week placement.

“I have always been the mother of the group, who looks after everyone," said The Queen Katherine School student.

“I just love helping people. I want to look after mothers as they bring their babies into the world.”

Without the work experience, Lauren, who dreams of studying at the University of Surrey, would not be able to get the required 21 days work experience in a hospital in order to study midwifery.

“It’s really difficult to get a work placement at 16 or 17, as you need to be 18 to do work experience in a UK hospital,” she said. “My friend did this same work experience and when I heard about it I thought: ‘Oh my goodness, that’s perfect for me.’

“I look forward to see my first baby being born, and to experience a different culture, seeing how babies are born and how mothers deal with the birth in a different society.

“There are completely different illnesses such as malaria and dengue fever, which we simply don’t have in the UK. It will be so interesting and exciting.”

After finishing her work experience and university studies, Lauren wants to become a midwife on the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall, where she has family.

But for now, Lauren raises funds online and sells biscuits and cakes at school, as well as at ... where her mother Suzanne works.

Suzanne Pender said: “Lauren is a fantastic, talented and hard-working girl, and I know she will manage to raise the funding she needs and she will have a wonderful time on her gap-medics experience.”

Visit Lauren’s GoFundMe page at www.gofundme.com/gap-medics-trip-dominican-republic