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War and medicine

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The Wellcome Trust is one of the world's largest medical charities, spending more than GBP600 million (HK$6.76 billion) a year to promote research into the health of both humans and animals.

Based in London, the Trust also houses the Wellcome Collection, initially amassed by Sir Henry Wellcome in the late 19th century.

The collection is hosting a number of multimedia events through February 15 as part of its War and Medicine exhibition, which examines the effects of armed conflict upon soldiers, civilians and surgeons throughout history.

As befits Wellcome's global reach, it makes liberal use of the internet to reach an audience far beyond its London home.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in War and Medicine's film season. In addition to screenings of M.A.S.H., A Matter of Life and Death and Jiyan, an Iraqi film set in the war-torn Kurdish town of Halabja, a number of short documentaries have been posted on the Wellcome Collection's website (www.wellcomecollection.org).

These mix first-hand accounts by doctors, nurses and civilians on the frontline with public information films dating back to the second world war.

The first two examples are drawn from recent conflicts: artist David Cotterrell speaks about his experiences in military hospitals in Afghanistan that inspired his installation Theatre; Vicky Treacy, a nurse with Medecins Sans Frontieres, recalls the period she spent working in Darfur. Both Cotterrell and Treacy speak candidly but calmly about the often horrific violence they witnessed, illustrating their recollections with moving images and photographs.

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