IT was, to say the least, disconcerting. We had been talking and laughing a great deal for more than half an hour when suddenly the lady burst into tears. What had I said?

We had been discussing a dirt-poor African boy who, against the odds, had won a place at university, his escape from a life of poverty.

But he nearly didn't get there - because he could not afford the £10 bus fare from his village in the bush to the university, a promising young life dashed forever for a miserable tenner.

Thanks to Gill Hunter, that young fellow got his bus fare and is now at college. But it was at this point when Gill burst into tears.

They didn't last long, because Gill Hunter is no bleeding heart - I suspect, in fact, that she can be as tough as nails when the situation demands it.

She wiped her eyes, the smile returned, and she said: "Sorry about that. I was just thinking of all the other youngsters like him who didn't get that tenner and, as a result, face a lifetime of backbreaking labour, constant poverty, and the ever-present danger of literally starving to death.

"Yet the last time I was home it was Christmas and the shops were full of expensive junk, the stuff we spend millions on at that time of year and discard within a few weeks, and you wonder what has happened to the balance of the world."

This was not an easy conversation in a comfortable, well-furnished bungalow in Addingham where, had she so chosen, Gill, aged 62, could be spending a well-earned retirement.

Instead, she flies yo-yo-like to and from Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries, where she has spent many years on and off trying to give native children that golden key to a better future: an education.

Gill was born in Leeds and, unusually for the time, took a degree in mathematics at Hull University. She went into industry first, doing research with Rolls-Royce in Derby, didn't like it very much so decided she might like teaching - "there was such a shortage of maths teachers that I was in front of a class within five days."

It was the first of many moves because Gill has acute itchy feet syndrome and she eventually ended up teaching in New Zealand. On the way back, she took a bus home ... from India!

She was, again unusually for her time, a keen cricketer and, when she got home, a cricket playing friend was visiting from Nigeria. That sounded nice, so off popped Gill for another three years, simply ignoring the fact that the Biafran civil war, one of the bloodiest on a continent becoming infamous for inter-tribal strife, had only just ended.

That tour over, she drove the length of Africa with a friend in a small jeep and passed through Malawi. Home again in 1977, she took teaching jobs in Bradford and Leeds and, because her sister had settled there, bought her bungalow in Addingham. But those feet were soon itching and twitching again.

"The friend I had crossed Africa with had gone to do voluntary work in Papua, New Guinea, and he wrote asking me to join him," she went on.

"So I quit my job and joined Voluntary Service Overseas, and when I had finished my training, they sent me to Malawi - I would be of more use there, they said, so I couldn't really argue."

We laughed. The room is full of wooden African carvings and her dining table covered with hand-carved chessman, which she is selling to raise money for the charity she now runs herself: the Hunter Trust for Education in Malawi.

She has been going back there for almost 20 years now - at first during her school holidays whilst she was still working in Yorkshire as a teacher and more often since she took early retirement - "and the most important work of my life really began."

"The Malawi people are wonderful, cheerful, friendly and loyal but they have had a hard time," she explains. "After Britain gave them independence, they were ruled by the dictator Hastings Banda, who left the country in a terrible mess.

"Now, they have a fledgling democracy but it is very hard for them. The country has no mineral wealth and it's only cash crop is tobacco. The vast majority of people live by subsistence farming and famine is always just around the corner.

"That is why education is so important. They need professional skills to pull the country up by its own efforts. But, apart from primary school, the people have to pay for their education - and most of them can't afford it even though by our standards it is ridiculously cheap.

"We can put a child through secondary education for £100 a year. University costs about £150. We have just built of new schoolhouse in one village for £7,000.

"But even if we get kids from the bush into university, they can't afford the bus fare to get there - lives ruined for a tenner, the cost of a round of drinks or a few burgers and chips here..."

Some time later, my phone rings and it is Gill. This time, there are no tears but excited laughter. There are times for celebration, even in Malawi.

One of her many joys is a gospel singing group of youngsters called the Tikku Vibrations, which she founded when she took back to Africa an electric keyboard which had belonged to her late mother.

The group, she informed me joyfully, had just won a music competition covering the whole of southern Africa and had been invited to tour Sweden.

"Just imagine, my little band in Europe!" Tears and joy. That just about sums up Gill Hunter. I hope she enjoys much more of the latter.

o Anyone wishing to contribute should call the trust treasurer, Mrs Adrianne Ker, on 01943 600444. Gill is also happy to explain more about her work on 01943 830992.