Our history

In the 1930s we began working with Toc H, a social inclusion charity founded during the First World War. Its founder, the Rev ‘Tubby’ Clayton, pioneered the concept of recruiting volunteers to work overseas, primarily in Africa. He also introduced fundraising from the general public as a consistent and routine part of the Association’s work – without the continued support of the public the charity would be able to achieve very little.

Throughout our history, the reigning monarch has always been our patron. In the 1950s, King George VI became the first ‘Royal’ to sponsor children through the adoption scheme then in existence. This period also saw the removal of the word ‘Empire’ from the name and the first use of ‘LEPRA’.

The 1960s saw increased awareness of leprosy. In the UK, our television and radio appeals were hugely successful and a significant source of income. A documentary film on LEPRA’s work in India, ‘The Name of the Cloud is Ignorance’, won awards at the Venice Film Festival and at the XIX International Film Festival.

As a result, our overseas work expanded greatly throughout the 1970s, supporting projects in a further 11 countries.

During the 1980s, many breakthroughs were made in curing leprosy patients and developing a vaccine.

Further research continues to build on this work to this day.

In 1999 LEPRA celebrated its 75th anniversary with Her Majesty The Queen presenting prizes for the ‘Quest for Dignity’ art competition.

2001 saw many new areas of work, including 14 Technical Support Teams in India, trials of new health education kits in Brazil, and special ’skin clinics’ set up to overcome the problem of leprosy stigma in Mozambique.

In recent years, LEPRA has broadened its remit to enable our skills and experience to benefit the control of other diseases of poverty. We officially changed our name to LEPRA Health in Action in 2008 to reflect this expansion of our work into new areas.