Joan Evans was born in Liverpool, England in 1928, but she didn’t live there for very long. Her father was a soldier and was sent by the government to India. He took all his family with him, and they lived in Calcutta （加尔各答），in a house which the army gave them. Joan liked living in India. She liked the food and the warm weather. As a child, she would go to school in the morning, but in the afternoon, she used to go out riding on her horse.When she was 20, the British left India and her family returned to Liverpool. Joan didn’t want to return with them, so she decided to get a job and stay in India. In the 1940’s in India there were not many jobs that an English woman could do, so she decided to study to become a nurse and work in a hospital there. Joan finished her studies in 1950 and started working in a large hospital caring for sick children. She was a very good nurse because she was very kind and worked very hard.When she was working at the hospital, she met a doctor named Gupta. Joan and Gupta started going to restaurants and the cinema together, and soon decided to get married. Joan’s family returned to India for the wedding. After two more years working in the hospital with Gupta, Joan decided that she wanted to do more to help the sick children in the city. She knew that the hospital only helped the children whose parents could pay for the medicine the children needed. Joan decided to start a charity (慈善团体) to help children whose parents didn’t have enough money.The charity Joan started has now become the largest children’s charity in India. It has helped over 40,000 children since it was set up in 1955. It has grown and now helps children in other cities as well as Calcutta. In 1992 the charity built its own hospital in Calcutta. Many people who are alive today owe their life to (把……归功于) Joan’s dream.
It wasn’t easy for Joan to find a job in India.